blowing their boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and described
the apple-tree as a botanist.

According to the prose Edda, [Footnote: The stories of the early
Scandinavians.] "Iduna keeps in a box the apples which the gods,
when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to become
young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in
renovated youth until Ragnarok" (or the destruction of the Gods).

I learn from Loudon [Footnote: An English authority on the culture
of orchards and gardens.] that "the ancient Welsh bards were
rewarded for excelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;" and
"in the Highlands of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the
clan Lamont."

The apple-tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone.
Loudon says, that "it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe
except the frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China and
Japan." We have also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous
in North America. The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced
into this country by the earliest settlers, and is thought to do as
well or better here than anywhere else. Probably some of the
varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into
Britain by the Romans.

Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, "Of trees
there are some which are altogether wild, some more civilized."
Theophrastus includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is
in this sense the most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as
a dove, as beautiful as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds.