Wild Apples.

By Henry David Thoreau





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 [Footnote: A German historical critic of ancient life.]
observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing,