I ft! ¡1
fHll
I -t!|
Ii
fli'j
r
96
THE WHITE ASTRACAN APPLE.
White Astracan. Hort. Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 23.
Transparent de Moscovie.. 7 ^ ,
> of foreign Gardens.
Glace de Zelande...................)
Pyrus Astracanica. Dumont Courset, Bot. Cult. ed. 2. vol.v.
p . 426. Decand. Prodr. vol. ii. p . 635.
The waxy secretion called bloom, which has
been wisely provided by nature for protecting the
delicate cuticle of many succulent fruits, such as
Plums, Grapes, and others, is scarcely found in the
Apple and Pear, or at least only in very minute
quantity. In Apples, however, there are a few exceptions
to this ; and, what is extremely remarkable,
almost exclusively among varieties cultivated in
Russia. For instance, the Apple called by Mr.
Kirke the Duchess of Oldenburg, which is known
to be of Russian origin; the Emperor Alexander;
and the subject of this article, with some others,
are covered with a coating of bloom as copious and
delicate as that of the most beautiful Plum.
Independently of this, the White Astracan
Apple possesses the singular property of becoming
transparent when ripe, a circumstance which is well
known to occur in a variety of Crab, but which is
very rare among Apples. It is on all these accounts,
we presume, that the foreign writers whom we have
above cited have been induced to consider this a
distinct species of Pyrus, in which they are unquestionably
wrong.