Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree

This Henry David Thoreau classic is called Wild Apples. It is a venerable Henry David Thoreau work, subtitled "The History of the Apple Tree," and it stands as a classic among natural history essays. This Thoreau essay contains the following excerpt:

"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."