In attempting to trace out the history of any plant that has long been subjected to the dominion of man, we are beset with difficulties growing out of the uncertainty of language, and arising also from the absence of precise terms of science in the descriptions or allusions which we meet respecting them. As he who would investigate the history of our great national grain crop, the noble Indian maize, which, in our language, claims the generic term corn, will at once meet with terms apt to mislead him in the English translation of the Bible, and in the writings of Europeans, who use the word corn in a generic sense, as applying to all the edible grains, and especially to wheat--so in this investigation we may easily be misled by meeting the word apple in the Bible and in the translations of Latin and Greek authors, and we may be permitted to question whether the original words translated apple may not have been applied to quite different fruits, or perhaps we may ask whether our word may not originally have had a more general sense, meaning as it does, according to its derivation, any round body. The etymology of the word apple is referred by the lexicographers to _abhall_, Celtic; _avall_, Welsh; _afall_ or _avall_, Armoric; _aval_ or _avel_, Cornish; and these are all traceable to the Celtic word _ball_, meaning simply a round body. Worcester traces the origin of apple directly to the German _apfel_, which he derives from _æpl_, _apel_, or _appel_. Webster cites the Saxon _appl_ or _appel_; Dutch, _appel_; German, _apfel_; Danish, _æble_; Swedish, _aple_; Welsh, _aval_; Irish, _abhal_ or _ubhal_; Armoric, _aval_; Russian, _yabloko_. Its meaning being fruit in general, with a round form. Thus the Persian word _ubhul_ means Juniper berries, and in Welsh the word used means other fruits, and needs a qualifying term to specify the variety or kind. Hogg, in his British Pomology, quoting Owen, says, the ancient Glastonbury was called by the Britons _Ynys avallac_ or _avallon_, meaning an apple orchard, and from this came the Roman word _avallonia_, from this he infers that the apple was known to the Britons before the advent of the Romans. We are told, that in 973, King Edgar, when fatigued with the labors of the chase, laid himself down under a wild apple tree, so that it becomes a question whether this plant was not a native of England as of other parts of Europe, where in many places it is found growing wild and apparently indigenous. Thornton informs us in his history of Turkey, that apples are common in Wallachia, and he cites among the varieties one, the _domniasca_, "which is perhaps the finest in Europe, both for its size, color, and flavor." It were hard to say what variety this is, and whether it be known to us.