The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, and its fruit in two or three more. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons were set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted by its fruit. The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians. Mhlon, in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in general. The apple was early so important, and generally distributed, that its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general. Niebuhr observes that “the words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to agriculture and the gentler way of life, agree in Latin and Greek, while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase are utterly alien from the Greek, while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the cause are utterly alien from the Greek.” Thus the apple-tree may be considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive. Tacitus says of the ancient Germans, that they satisfied their hunger with wild apples ( agrestia poma) among other things.

An entire black and shriveled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores. 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. The geologist tells us that the order of the Rosaceœ, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the Labiatœ, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple-tree is connected with that of man.

Wild Apples by Henry David Thoreau