Alphonse De Candolle, who made a profound study of the probable origin
of most of our cultivated plants, comes to the conclusion that the apple
tree must have had this wide distribution in prehistoric times, and that
its cultivation began in ancient times everywhere.
This very important conclusion by so high an authority throws
considerable light on the relation between cultivated and wild varieties
at large. If the historic facts go to prove a multiple origin for the
cultivation of some of the more important useful plants, the probability
that different varieties or elementary species have been the starting
points for different lines of culture, evidently becomes stronger.
Unfortunately, this historic evidence is scanty. The most interesting
facts are those concerning the use of apples by the Romans and by their
contemporaries of the Swiss and middle European lake-dwellings. Oswald
Heer has collected large numbers of the relics of this prehistoric
period. Apples were found in large quantities, ordinarily cut into
halves and with the signs of having been dried. Heer distinguished two
varieties, one with large and one with small fruits. The first about 3
and [75] the other about 1.5-2 cm. in diameter. Both are therefore very
small compared with our present ordinary varieties, but of the same
general size as the wild forms of the present day.
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