The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau

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Title: Wild Apples

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4066]
Release Date: May, 2003
First Posted: November 1, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES ***

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Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines.

Wild Apples.

By

Henry David Thoreau

CONTENTS

THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.
THE WILD APPLE.
THE CRAB.
HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.
THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.
THEIR BEAUTY.
THE NAMING OF THEM.
THE LAST GLEANING.
THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE.

THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected
with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the
Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the
Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the
appearance of man on the globe.

It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown
primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of
the Swiss lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so
old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black and
shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores.

Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger
with wild apples, among other things.

Niebuhr[1] observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough,
ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to
agriculture and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek,
while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase
are utterly alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be
considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive.

[1] A German historical critic of ancient life.

The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that
its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in
general. Maelon (Melon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of
other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and