The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-28
VARIETIES OF APPLES,
Some Peculiar Facts Relative to
Their Growth and Their
Possible Origin.
Freaks in the Shape of Twins and
Triplets Are Often
Found.
Much Ii Known But = Vast Amount 10
Not Known About tho Deli
cious Fruit, -

oious Fruit.
There are described by various writer's q
having been at some time growing 1
America-all OF which have had name
given to them-some 1000 varieties 9
apples. As a matter OF fact, no appl
comes from seed exactly like it's parent
Every Seeding apple has, therefore an in
dividuality of its own, to a greater or les
degree. The manner in which nature OF
feets this variation has never yet been de
termined, though there IL reason to believ'
the rhythmic growth has much to do will
it. At oach rest nutrition is diverted I,
other directions; in proportions to the dura.
ton OF these rests other portions become
developed. This is known rs the law o
aocelleration or of retardation.
External circumstances, however, some.
what determine lines OF growth. The warm
sun brings forward the blossoms. The sta
mems, which prepare the fertilizing dust,
develop rapidly under unusual warmth.
while the pistil, which has tho responsibility
of bringing forth the fruit, takes it's own
time. In this way the stamens often
mature the pollen in advance of the needa
OF the pistiI.pMhen tho pistil is matured
there ia no pollen. and hence no fertiliza-
tion and NO crop. The abundant seasons
are when stamsnn and pissils mature con-
tsmporansously. But even when the fruit
is properly fertilized she tree has stored up
nutrition enough the past season, and then
the ground under the tree 10 stored with
miniature fruit. .
Even the 1000 kinds Of apples now rec
ognized make triding list compared to the
apples OF the past. No n knows where
the apple was originally indigenous. 1t
ia common with garden authors to write
delicious apple has been developed from
the wild crab" 1t is Just as likely, from
American experience. that the wild crab
of the Old World is the degenerate escape
from cultivated trees. We know that the
ancient Greeks cultivated it, but. as the
root of the word is the same in all, even tho
most barbaric tongues, there ID little doubt
of its beng cultivated long before the
dawn of modern civilization. Remains of
what must have been very fine specimens
of apples are found in the mud under spots
where the lake dwsllors in Switzerland had
their sabins long before it was safe for
human beings to found towns and villages
on land. That it travelled with the white
man from his early Asiastie home is much
more likely than nature, unaided by man,
spread 1t all over the woods and wilds of
northern Europe.
Another good argument for it's Asiatic
origin lies in the fact that there is q closely
related species Of apple, Pyrus ~coronaria.
truly indigenous to the Atlantic portion of
years a remarkable correspondence has
between the fora of this portion of our
union and that of northern Asia, and many
q scientific man would be willing to stake
his reputation on the chance that, with this
pretty native apple before him, there must
be or have been more close Asiatio relations.
Among apples there are freaks. A mem
Der of the state board of agriculture, in
one Of the northern counties, has an apple
tree that never had a pstal. No one would
ever know that it was in blossom, yet it
bears fruit abundantly. This shows that
the pretty rosy parts of the flower, the
petals, are non-essential to fruitfulness.
Then there are seedless apples-apples with
no core. There may be germs in the ovar-
iums, n the germs may be properly fer
tilted by the pollen, but the power to alb
sorb nutrition is weak and the ovari es die
in infancy from sheer starvation. Having
been once fertilized, the fsshy part We
know emphatioaliy as the apple grows on
and natures, though the seed and core do
not. Twins or even triplets are often seen
in apples.
Once in a while some tree in an orchard
will take a notion to produce a different
fruit than usual. Regularly producing
apple, or it may differ in color or some
other way. 1t is usual to refer this to the
influence of some other pollen. But those
who have made test experiments do not find
any immediate effects on the fruit, though
they do on the coteyledons, or future seed
I--~Vz. - H. o-~~--I 49, a. l. Ill.,
hand, we know that the plants have a ten
dsncy to vary, outside of any influence on
the seed. Another freak is for an apple
usually smooth to bear fruit with partially
russetsd skin.
Why is one kind of an apple red, another
yellow, another green, even whom ripe; or
why a mixture Of all these colors often in
one? Again the truthful answer is, "We
do not know?' 1t has been said an apple
was made good to eat in order that the
seed might be widely distributed. Most
seeds have some special adaptation for dis
tribution. A pine seed or a linden seed
travels by wings spread to the wind; the
sand-bur adhsres to the hair or wool of
animals; the thistle or dandelion calls by
its downy papus to long distances, but the
apple falls under the parent tree, and the
seed can only grow after the apple has
rotted away. And SO, says the pretty theory.
it was made grateful to man. He sends
eS1A SAFS v oHS w koLik l. uACCSs IL
eats ths flesh and throws away the core,
and on the spot whore it falls an apple
tree grows. Surely this is the fact,
whether specifically arranged to this end
or not; but this will not account for the
varying color of the fruit. A Rhode
Island grooming or a Newton pippin, green
n unattractive, are scattered over the
world as generously as the bright-colored
Baldwin or Northern Spy. We know a
little of the manner in which the color is
bright about. and that is all. Oxidation of
certain mineral elements. in connection
with light, produces the various tints, but
just why, in a striped yellow and red
apple, for instance, the mineral clements
should not be uniform, and why there
should bs one kind in the line of the dark
stripes and another in the line of brighte r
ones, no ono can tell.
There has been one gain in our KNOWLEDGE
of this cauEe of color in flowers or fruits in
a general way. II we brave the GOLD on a
keen winters day the roses come to the
cheek, or the blue to the lips or nose. 1t
is the same battle with the clements
that brings color to flowers. The
briRhtest and most brilliant colors
are where the struggle for life is the
Rreatest-thas ID to say, in the Arctics,
on mountain tops, or on dry, barren
deserts. 1t has oven been found that
flowers, like fax, which in blossom present
a sheet of light blue in u mild climate, have
q deep azure when growing in Sweden,
where the struggle with the elements ID
moro severe. In the tropics, where every
thing ~ favorable to vegetation, there
I n fnr n