The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-05
Fruits Of the Rose Family.

70 any particular adoption of their stocks
IN The primitive orchards of early man.
30 lar as we can now tell, the roses dc
not date back in time beyond the tertiary
period of geology. The very earliest
members of the family still extant are
little creeping herbs, like cinquefoil and
sllver-weed, with yellow blossoms Gall
primitive blossoms, indeed, are Yellow
and small, dry inedible seeds. The
strawberry is the lowest type of rose
above these very simple forms. 1t is
stlll creeping herb, and its seeds are
still small, dry and inedible; but they are
im6edded in juicy pulp which entices
BIRDS to swallow them, and so aid in
dispensing them under circumstances
peculiarly favorable to their due germi-
nation and growth. Next in order after
this earliest rude succulent type (nature's
tlrst rough sketch of fruit, so to speak;
and very successful one, too, from the
human point of view at least) come the
blackberry and raspberry, where the in
dlvldual fruitlets grow soft, sweet and
pulpy, instead of remaining dry as in the
strawberry. And this change clearly
marks step in advance; so that
| S~noOilACo auo ldSpUCIIlSo arc Cu-
abled to get along with fewer
seeds, and yet to thrive much better
in. the struggle for life too-seeing
that they have developed into stout
woody trailers, often forming consider
able Tickets, and killing down all the
lesser, vegetation beneath and between
them Again, the dog-roses show still
higher1 alike in their erect
bushy hrm, in their large pink flowers,
and in tleir big scarlet hips-which are
uneatablt by us, it is true, but are great
favorites with birds in severe winters.
The haws of the whitethorn are even
more successful in attracting the robins
and other migratory allies; and the
whitethorn has been enabled, according
ly, to reduce its seeds to one or two,
each enclosedin hard, bony, indigesti-
BILE nut Finally at the very summit OF
the genealogical tree, we get the plum
tribe, highest of all the roses; growing
into considerable arborescent forms
(hough in this respect inferior to pears
or apples), and producing large, lus-
cious, pulpy fruits, with single stony
seed, admirably adapted to the best
type of dispersion, and never wasting a
solitary germ unnecessarily, as must be
continually the case with its small dry
seeded congeners, the silver-weeds and
cinquefoils. Not, of course, that this
pedigree must be acceptedin a lineal
sense Gndeed, the roses early in their
history broke up into at least three dis
tinct lines, which have evolved separ-
ately on their own account. and have
eliminated respectively in the plums,
the true roses and the apples); but it il
lustrates the general method of their de-
velopment, and it shows the strong ten
dency which they all alike possess to-
ward the production of sweet pulpy
fruits in one form or another.
If you look for a moment at a ripe
cherry-by preference red one, as be
ing less artificial than the pale white.
hearts-you will see how well it is fitteC
to perform the functions for which the
tree has produced it. 1t has a bright
outer coat, to attract the eyes of birds
and especially of southern birds, fol
England is near its northern limit, ano
it is big fruit for our native species tt
eat rowan-berries, haws and birdcher
ries are rather their special food in oul
northern ATTITUDES. Then, again, it ha:
sweet pulp to tempt their appetite
sweetness and bright color in plants
being almost always directly traceablt
to animal selection. But inside, its ac
tual seed is protected by stony shell
while its kernel is stored with rich food
stuffs for the young Seeding, laid by il
its thick seed-leaves, which form tn,
two lobes of the almond-like embryo
The flower, it is true, has pair of sep
arate ovules. which ought, under ordi
nary circumstances, to develop into two
seeds; but as the fruit ripens ONT
of them almost always atrophies
Such dimunition in the number of seeds
invariably accompanies every advance
in specialization, or every fresh forward
steps in appliances for more certain dis
tribution. The little hard nuts on tn
outside of the strawberry number fifty
or sixty; the nutlets of the raspberry
number only some twenty or thirty, tn
pips of the apple, relatively ill protected
by the leathery core, range from five t.
ten; the stones of the haw, with thei
bonier covering, are only two; but il
the plum tribe, with their extreme adap
tation to animal dispersion, tn
seeds have reached the minimum,
irreducible of one. 1t is this highes
tribe of all, accordingly, that sup
plies us with what we call distinctivel
our stone-fruits. The sloes of the com
mon blackthorn have grown, under cul
tiyation, into our domestic plums; tn
two wild cherries have grown into on
morellos and bigaroons; an Eastern bus
has been gradually developed into on
more delicate apricots. The old-fash
, toned botanists have thrust the peac
] and hectarine into separate genus, be
lcause of their wrinkled stones; but com
mon sense will show any one that
would be much easier to get peach on
of an apricot than to get an apricc
out of plum; and, indeed, these artifi
. cial scientific distinctions are fast break
ing down at the present day, as we lear
: more and more about the infinite plastic
ity of living forms under cultivation 0
altered circumstances. Even the almond
different as its nut appears from tn
plum type of fruit, is really plum b
origin; for in all other particulars of flow
er, leaf and habit, it closely resemble
the nectarine, from which it has diverge
only in the solitary specially OF les