specifically distinct.

The famous St. Valery apple must not be passed over; the flower has a
double calyx with ten divisions, and fourteen styles surmounted by
conspicuous oblique stigmas, but is destitute of stamens or corolla.
The fruit is constricted round the middle, and is formed of five
seed-cells, surmounted by nine other cells.[708] Not being provided
with stamens, the tree requires artificial fertilisation; and the girls
of St. Valery annually go to "_faire ses pommes_," each marking her own
fruit with a ribbon; and as different pollen is used, the fruit
differs, and we here have an instance of the direct action of foreign
pollen on the mother-plant. These monstrous apples include, as we have
seen, fourteen seed-cells; the pigeon-apple,[709] on the other hand,
has only four, instead of, as with all common apples, five cells; and
this certainly is a remarkable difference.

In the catalogue of apples published in 1842 by the Horticultural
Society, 897 varieties are enumerated; but the differences between most
of them are of comparatively little interest, as they are not strictly
inherited. No one can raise, for instance, from the seed of the Ribston
Pippin, a tree of the same kind; and it is said that the "Sister
Ribston Pippin" was a white, semi-transparent, sour-fleshed apple, or
rather large crab.[710] Yet it is a mistake to suppose that with most
varieties the characters are not to a certain extent inherited. In two
lots of seedlings raised from two well-marked kinds, many worthless,
crab-like seedlings will appear, but it is now known that the two lots
not only usually differ from each other, but resemble to a certain
extent their parents. We see this indeed in the several sub-groups of
Russetts, Sweetings, Codlins, Pearmains, Reinettes, &c.,[711] which are
all believed, and many are known, to be descended from other varieties
bearing the same names.

_Pears (Pyrus communis)._--I need say little on this fruit, which
varies much in the wild state, and to an extraordinary degree when
cultivated, in its fruit, flowers, and foliage. One of the most
celebrated botanists in Europe, M. Decaisne, has carefully studied the
many varieties;[712] although he formerly believed that they were
derived from more than one species, he is now convinced that all belong
to one. He ha