APPLE, Pyrus mains. (For the generic character, see Pvnus.) This well-known fruit has been very long cultivated, and by that means it has been very much improved. It was extensively cultivated by the Romans, by whom, probably, it was introduced into Britain. The wild A., or Cumt-tree, a native of Britain, and very generally found in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, is a rather small and often somewhat stunted-looking tree, with austere, uneatable fruit, yet it is the parent of all, or almost all the varieties of apple so much prized for the dessert. The A.-tree, even in a culti vated state, is seldom more than 30 to 40 ft. high. It has a large round head; the leaves are broadly ovate, much longer than the petioles, woolly beneath, acute, crenate, and provided with glands; its flowers are always produced, 3 to 13 together, in sessile umbels, and are large, white, rose-colored externally, and fragrant. The fruit is roundish, or narrowest towards the apex, with a depression at each end, generally green, but also fre quently yellow, light red, dark red, streaked, sometimes even almost black; with the rind sometimes downy, sometimes glabrous, sometimes thickish, and sometimes very thin and transparent, varying in size from that of a walnut to that of a small child's head—the taste more or less aromatic, sweet, or snbacid. It is produced on spurs, which spring from branchlets of two or more years' growth, and continue to bear for a series of years. The fruit of the A. is, with regard to its structure, styled by botanists a pone (q v.). The eatable part is what is botanically termed the mcsocarp (see FRUIT), which, in its first development, enlarges with the calyx, the summit of the fruit being crowned at last by the dried 5-parted limb of the calyx; the endomp being, when ripe, cartilaginous, and containing in its cells seeds which do not correspond with them in size, but are so free as often to rattle when it is shaken.
The A. is now one of the most widely diffused of fruit-trees, and in the estimation of many, is the most valuable of all. It succeeds best in the colder parts of the temperate zone. It is, however, to be met with on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, in Arabia, Persia, the West Indies, etc., but there its fruit is as small and worthless as in high nor thern latitudes. The varieties in cultivation are extremely numerous. They have been classified with great care by recent German writers, by whom the classification and de scription of apples, pears, and similar fruits, has been treated as a sort of science, and dignified by the name of Pomology. Metzger, in his description of the pomaceous fruits of southern Germany, describes 89 different kinds of A., all of which are constant, be sides sub-varieties. New varieties arc continually produced; and as they are chiefly pre served and propagated by grafting—although some of them also grow by layers and cut tings—the old ones gradually die out. The costard, from which dealers in apples received
the n'ame of costardmongers, is DO longer known. Many varieties are designated by the general names of pippins, retinas, codlins, and calrilles. Some kinds, not approved for the dessert, are in high esteem as baking-apples, and others still more acid or austere are preferred for the manufacture of Cider (q.v.).
The A. is grown in Britain either as a standard, an espalier, or a wall-tree, and is variously trained. It is usually grafted on A. or crab-stocks, but succeeds also on haw thorn-stocks, and is in this way sometimes introduced into hedges. A very dwarf vari ety, called the paradise A., is often used as a stock on which to graft in order to produce dwarf trees; and trees thus dwarfed arc often very productive when little larger than currant or gooseberry bushes. Some of the varieties of A. are more hardy than others, and are therefore to be preferred for cold or exposed situations. Some of the finest kinds succeed well only when the soil and climate arc good. Some kinds are much earlier than others, both in flowering and ripening..
The wood of the A.-tree is hard, durable, and fine-grained. The crab is often planted both as an ornamental tree and for the sake of its wood. The bark contains a yellow dye.—As a fruit-tree, the A. requires a fertile soil and sheltered situation. The various uses of the fruit—for the dessert, for baking, preserving, making jelly, etc.,as well as for making the fermented liquor called cider—are sufficiently well known. Vinegar is also made from it; and sometimes a kind of spirit, especially in Switzerland and Swabia. It contains 'wale acid, which is extracted for medicinal purposes. The fermented juice of the crab A. is called tojuiee. It is used in cookery, and sometimes medicinally; also for the purifying of wax. Apples are an important article of commerce. Great quan tities are imported into Britain, chiefly from France, and the northern parts of the United States. The A. keeps better than most kinds of fruit.
Beau fins or 13(ifins are apples slowly dried in bakers' ovens, and occasionally pressed till they become soft and flat. They arc prepared in great quantities in Norfolk.
The SIBERIAN CRAB is perhaps the parent, by hybridization or otherwise, of some of the varieties of A. now in cultivation. Two species partake this designation, both natives of Siberia, and frequent in gardens in Britain, pyrus baccata of Linrmus, and pyrus prunifolk of Willdenow, which, however, scarcely differ, except that in the former the sepals (leaves of the calyx) are deciduous, in the latter they are persistent—a circum stance of very doubtful importance as a specific distinction. The fruit is sub-globose, yellowish, and rather austere, but is good for baking and preserves.