FOOTNOTES:
[46] From καρπος, Greek, for fruit.
CHAPTER XVI.[ToC]
CLASSIFICATION.
NECESSITY FOR—BASIS OF—CHARACTERS—SHAPE—ITS REGULARITY. FLAVOR—COLOR—THEIR SEVERAL VALUES—THOMAS' CLASSIFICATION—GERMAN WRITERS—DIEL'S SEVEN CLASSES—MODIFICATIONS BY DOCHNAHL—ROBERT HOGG'S MODIFICATION BASED UPON SEASON—DIEL'S CONSPECTUS OF CLASSIFICATION—DOCHNAHL'S—THE AUTHOR'S CLASSIFICATION EXPLAINED—EXPLANATION OF TERMS—TOPICS COMBINED—CONSPECTUS OF CLASSIFICATION USED IN THIS WORK.
The need of some classification grows more and more pressing, as our fruit lists have become more extended, and they now reach many hundreds. A good and reliable systematic classification has become absolutely necessary, and has received a great deal of consideration.
Upon what principle shall this classification be founded? The common alphabetical arrangement of most text books may be very convenient for a mere dictionary of fruits, but is utterly useless to the novice who does not know the name of his specimen. The arrangement by season and size has its difficulties in the uncertainty and variation of these characters in the different soils and climates of our extended country, and a sub-division and grouping of fruits by their quality of excellence is not only unreliable, but is altogether arbitrary, and subject to the greatest diversity of opinion arising from the various tastes of different individuals. We must look to some marked and reliable characters that are always present, easily recognized, and permanent or fixed. Among these shape or figure stands pre-eminent, notwithstanding the acknowledged fact that some varieties are almost protean. The shape of the general outline appears to be the best character for the broad divisions of a classification. A sub-division may again be made, which is to be based upon the regularity or irregularity of the shape.
The next character, and one of considerable value, is that dependent upon flavor in its broadest characters of sweet and sour, which, though sometimes giving rise to a puzzling question, is, in most varieties, sufficiently marked to constitute the basis of a minor sub-division. Color, which is notoriously the poorest character and least esteemed by botanists in their descriptions, on account of its liability to variation, is, however, of sufficient importance in pomology to take a high rank and to appear very prominently in fruit nomenclature. Still it should be reserved for the lowest sub-divisions of a classification.
Among our American writers, who deservedly stand prominent as pomologists, the most satisfactory attempt at classification is found in the little work prepared by J.J. Thomas. No one who has realized the advantages to be derived from the simple and clear sub-divisions made by this author, will ever be satisfied with a fruit-book that is not arranged upon the basis of some classification. Thomas, in his excellent work, makes three great divisions of apples according to their period of ripening, as the Summer, Autumn, and Winter fruits, to which some of us would desire to add Spring, or long-keepers. Each of these he has divided into two classes—those characterized by their flavor as sweet apples, and those possessed of more or less acidity; and each of these classes is subdivided into two sections, according to their color, as striped with red and not striped; so that in this arrangement we have eighteen groups, and, with specimen in hand, this synopsis enables us at once to decide in which of these groups of moderate dimensions we may look for the description we desire; and, if it be contained in the book, it may readily be found. The labor of searching through the whole list is thus obviated.
The Germans have made many attempts at the classification of fruits. Christ, Diel, Dochnahl, Manger and Sickler, have been engaged in this work; and Diel's Synopsis, though far from perfect, has been generally adopted. He makes seven classes, with orders under each. Dochnahl, a later writer, has modified this by making two sections according to the shape, whether angular or spherical, and four classes also based upon their form.
Robert Hogg, in his British Pomology, which is an excellent account of the apples cultivated in England, has given a modification which answers a good purpose for classification. He makes three great sections, according to season, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each of these is divided into two classes, according to shape: 1st, Round, roundish, or oblate; and 2nd, Oblong, conical, oval, or ovate. These again are grouped according to their colors: A, pale; B, striped; C, red; and D, russet.
As a matter of interest I will give Diel's classification.
CLASS I.—RIBBED APPLES.
1. They are furnished with very prominent, but regular ribs around the eye, extending also over the fruit, but which do not render it irregular.
2. Having wide, open, and very irregular cells.
ORDER I.—TRUE CALVILLES.
1. They taper from about the middle of the fruit toward the eye.
2. They are covered with bloom when on the tree.
3. They have, or acquire, by keeping, an unctuous skin.
4. They are not distinctly and purely striped.
5. They have light, spongy, delicate flesh.
6. They have a strawberry or raspberry flavor.
ORDER II.—SCHLOTTER ÆPFEL.
1. The skin does not feel unctuous.
2. They are not covered with bloom.
3. They are either of a flat, conical, cylindrical, or tapering form.
4. They have not a balsamic, but mostly a sweetish or sourish flavor.
5. They have a granulous, loose, and coarse-grained flesh.
ORDER III.—GUELDERLINGE.
1. They are not balsamic, like Order I., but of an aromatic flavor.
2. They have a fine flesh, almost like that of the Reinettes.
3. They are either of a conical or flat shape.
4. They are most prominently ribbed around the eye.
CLASS II—ROSENÆPFEL—ROSE APPLES.
1. They are covered with blue bloom when on the tree.
2. They have not unproportionally large, but often only regular cells.
3. They emit a pleasant odor when briskly rubbed.
4. The skin does not feel unctuous.
5. They are handsomely and regularly ribbed around the eye, and often also over the fruit.
6. They have a tender, loose, spongy, and mostly fine grained flesh.
7. They have a fine rose, fennel, or anise flavor.
8. They are mostly of short duration, and are often only summer or autumn apples.
9. They are mostly striped like a turnip.
ORDER I.—FRUIT TAPERING OR OBLONG.
ORDER II.—FRUIT ROUND OR FLAT.
CLASS III.—RAMBOURS.
1. They are all large apples, and comprise the largest sorts.
2. They have mostly, or almost always, two unequal halves—namely, one side lower than the other.
3. They are constantly furnished with ribs around the eye which are broad, rising irregularly, one above the other, and extending over the fruit so as to render it irregular in its shape; they are also compressed, and have one side higher than the other.
4. They are constantly broader than high, and only sometimes elongated.
5. They have all a loose, coarse grained and often very pleasant flesh.
ORDER I.—WITH WIDE CELLS.
ORDER II.—WITH NARROW CELLS.
CLASS IV.—REINETTES.
1. They have a fine grained, delicate, crisp, firm flesh.
2. They are mostly the ideal of a handsomely shaped apple; in them the convexity or bulge of the middle of the apple towards the eye is the same as that towards the stalk, or not much different.
3. They are all gray dotted, or have russety patches, or completely covered with russet.
4. They have rarely an unctuous skin.
5. They have all the rich, aromatic, sugary, and brisk flavor, which is called the Reinette flavor.
6. They decay very readily, and must, of all apples, hang longest on the tree.
7. The really sweet and at the same time aromatic apples belong to the Reinettes, only as regards their shape, their character, and their fine and firm flesh.
8. Apples with fine, firm, crisp flesh, which cannot of themselves form a distinct class; for instance, the Pippins belong to this class.
ORDER I.—SELF-COLORED REINETTES.
1. Having a uniform green ground color, which changes to the most beautiful golden yellow.
2. Having no lively colors or marks of russet on the side next the sun, except those that are very much exposed, and which assume a slight tinge of red.
3. Having no covering of russet, but only slight traces of russety stripes.
ORDER II.—RED REINETTES.
Having all the properties of the self-colored Reinettes, but of a pure red on the side next the sun, without any mixture of russet.
ORDER III.—GRAY REINETTES.
1. The ground color is green, changing to dingy dull yellow.
2. The coating of russet, or the russety patches, spread over the greater part of the fruit, are very conspicuous.
3. The side next the sun is often dull brownish or ochreous red.
ORDER IV.—GOLDEN REINETTES.
1. On the side next the sun they are washed or striped with beautiful crimson.
2. The ground color changes by keeping to a beautiful deep yellow.
3. Over the ground color, and the crimson of the exposed side, are spread light thin patches, or a complete coat of russet.
CLASS V.—STREIFLINGE—STRIPED APPLES.
1. They are all, and almost always, marked with broken stripes of red.
2. These stripes are found either over the whole fruit, or only very indistinctly on the side exposed to the sun.
3. The stripes may be distinct—that is to say, truly striped; or between these stripes on the side next the sun the fruit is dotted, shaded, or washed with red; but on the shaded side the stripes are well defined.
4. The cells are regular.
5. They are of a purely sweet, vinous, or acid flavor.
6. They have not the same flavor as the Rose apples.
7. They do not decay, except when gathered before maturity.
ORDER I.—FLAT STREIFLINGE.
1. They have the bulge at the same distance from the eye as from the stalk, and are broadly flattened.
2. They are constantly half an inch broader than high.
ORDER II.—TAPERING STREIFLINGE.
1. They are broader than high.
2. They diminish from the middle of the apple towards the eye, so that the superior half is conical or pyramidal, and not at all similar to the inferior half.
ORDER III.—OBLONG OR CYLINDRICAL STREIFLINGE.
1. The hight and breadth are almost equal.
2. They diminish gradually from the base to the apex.
3. Or from the middle of the fruit they gradually diminish toward the base and apex equally.
ORDER IV.—ROUND STREIFLINGE.
1. The convexity of the fruit next the base and the apex is the same.
2. The breadth does not differ from the hight, except only about a quarter of an inch.
3. Laid in the hand, with the eye and stalk sidewise, they have the appearance of a roundish grape.
1. They have the cells regular.
2. They are not covered with bloom.
3. They are not striped, and are either of a uniform color, or washed with red on the side next the sun.
4. Constantly diminishing to a point towards the eye.
5. They are sweet or vinous, approaching a pure acid.
6. They do not readily decay.
ORDER I.—OBLONG, CYLINDRICAL OR CONICAL.
Characters the same as Order III. of the Streiflinge.
ORDER II.—TAPERING TO A POINT.
Characters the same as Order II. of the Streiflinge.
CLASS VII.—FLAT APPLES.
1. They are constantly broader than high.
2. They are never striped.
3. They are either of a uniform color, or, on the side exposed to the sun, more or less washed or shaded with red.
4. They have regular cells.
5. They are not unctuous when handled.
6. They do not readily decay.
7. Flavor purely sweet, or purely sour.
ORDER I.—PURELY FLAT APPLES.
1. The difference is obvious to the eye.
2. The breadth is constantly half an inch more than the hight.
ORDER II.—ROUND-SHAPED FLAT APPLES.
1. The eye cannot easily detect a distinction between the breadth and hight.
2. The breadth rarely exceeds the hight by a quarter of an inch.
3. The fruit, cut transversely, exhibits almost or quite two equal halves.