Something About Fruit Trees.

Manawatu Herald, 4 September 1894, Page 3

Something About Fruit Trees.

— +- the apple— Pyrua Mains. a native probably of Asia ~^ though it is now cultivated in nearly all temperate regions. Several kinds are indigenous to England. Richard Hama^fejiiterer to King Henry VIIIj «aid to have planted a great number of the orchards in Kent, and Lord Scudatnore, ambassador to France in the reign of Charles I, planted many of those in Herefordshire. The apple was introduced into America from England in 1629 by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay. There are 1,496 named varieties in the last edition of the London Horticultural Society's List of Fruits of which they have 897 cultivated in their gardens. The- wild species of the crab apple of northern Europe is said to be the original of the common apple. The apple from want of attention becomes Binall, acid, and harsh, and is known as the. crab. Of the cultivated crabs, the Siberian jorab, the Chinese crab, and the oher«y crab are all natives of northern Asia. the apbioos. — Prttntu Armeniaca. It* name implies that it is a native of Armenia, but it is now supposed to be of Chinese origin. It grows wild in the Himalayas and the north westeri}. provinces of India. There is a considerable number of varieties, some of them with sweet kernels wh«jh.m&y be eaten like almcnds. It was introduced into England by the gardener of King Henry VIII. THE CIIERRY. — CetaSUß. An ancient town in Pontus in Asia where the oherry was a native gives it its botanical name. Lucullus brought it hence to Rome, after the defeat of-tho Mithridites, about 70 B.C. It. was introduced into Englan<H>y the Romans about the year 60 AvD?-' Fine kinds were brought from ' Flanders, in 1540, aud planted in Kent TflS .wsach.— Permca vulgavit. Its local origin has commonly been ascribed to Persia, but the investigafc tions of Dr Candolle, point to China. The varieties are numberless, a general distinction lying between clingstones and freestones, and again between white^and-yellow-fleshed. Th* clingstone peach has a pulp adhering firmly to the stone, and in the freestone peach the pulp separates readitrunhrieanly from the stone. "> It is said to have been introduced into England in the year 1562. the plum.— Prunut Donmtica. Ttoagh there ate two native

!„],:;**" 1# " "Rnpland the finer kinds JJIUUIO ... —_„ . -V.,,.,4. came from Italy and Flanders uuuu. 1522. The date plum was brought from Barbary before 1590, and the Pishamin plum from America before 1629. All these plums are believed to be derived ultimately from the black thorn or sloe of Europe, and temperate Asia. The plum is chiefly cultivated in France in the valley of the Loire, in Germany, Bosnia, Servia and Crotia. (To be Continued.)