Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed
Proofreaders
THE
ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
VOL. X.—NOVEMBER, 1862.—NO. LXI.
WILD APPLES.
THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.
It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connectedwith that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of theRosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and theLabiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to theappearance of man on the globe.
It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown primitivepeople whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of the Swisslakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so old thatthey had no metallic implements. An entire black and shrivelledCrab-Apple has been recovered from their stores.
Tacitus says of the ancient Germans, that they satisfied their hungerwith wild apples (agrestia poma) among other things.
Niebuhr observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough,ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating toagriculture and the gentler way of life, agree in Latin and Greek, whilethe Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase areutterly alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be considered asymbol of peace no less than the olive.
The apple was early so important, and generally distributed, that itsname traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general.[Greek: Maelon], in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of othertrees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in general.
The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, andScandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were temptedby its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragonswere set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it.
The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament,and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings,—"As the apple-treeamong the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." Andagain,—"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples." The noblest partof man's noblest feature is named from this fruit, "the apple of theeye."
The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw inthe glorious garden of Alcinoüs "pears and pomegranates, and apple-treesbearing beautiful fruit" ([Greek: kahi maeleai aglaokarpoi]). Andaccording to Homer, apples were among the fruits which Tantaluscould not pluck, the wind ever blowing their boughs away from him.Theophrastus knew and described the apple-tree as a botanist.
According to the Prose Edda, "Iduna keeps in a box the apples whichthe gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste ofto become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept inrenovated youth until Ragnarök" (or the destruction of the gods).
I learn from Loudon that "the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded forexcelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;" and "in theHighlands of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the clan Lamont."
The apple-tree (Pyrus malus) belongs chiefly to the northern temperatezone. Loudon says, that "it grows spontaneously in every part of Europeexcept the frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China, and Japan."We have also two or three va