The Botany of Desire Page #3

One of

the best known images

Of people and apples together

Comes from the story of

the garden of eden.

Though the bible doesn't

specify what the fruit is,

We have always imagined it

to be apples.

And that's because the northern

renaissance painters,

When they thought of a fruit,

A desirable fruit

that you would put in a garden,

They immediately

thought "apple."

But it wasn't an apple.

Probably was a pomegranate,

Because apples don't do

very well

In the lands where the bible is

thought to have taken place.

One place

where apples did grow

Was ancient china.

They'd been brought there

from central asia

On the trade route

called the silk road.

The apple also traveled west,

Reaching europe

and eventually the new world.

In america,

the apple found a partner,

Someone whose love for it would

become the stuff of legend --

Johnny appleseed.

Behind

johnny appleseed the myth,

There is a real person --

john chapman.

But the myth is so powerful,

So compelling, so fascinating,

That it has completely obscured

the real person who's behind it.

John chapman was born

in 1774 in massachusetts.

In his early 20s,

he headed west.

He traveled through

the ohio river valley,

Which was then

the american frontier,

Planting and selling

apple trees.

He is said to have

likened himself to a bee --

That he had some sense that he,

like a bee,

Was spreading

these plants around.

Johnny appleseed

was --

Not to make a terrible pun --

A pretty "seedy" fellow,

you know?

Travelling around,

often barefoot,

You know,

in a burlap sack sometimes,

Sleeping in barns.

But terribly engaging.

People took him in,

And he planted the orchards,

And he told them how to prune.

But he was, um...

He was a bum.

This is doubly odd,

Because he was actually

fairly well off.

Chapman could easily

have afforded

Much better clothes --

All those apple trees he planted

made him a prosperous man.

He wasn't just

Sprinkling apple seeds

where he went --

He was a nursery man.

He understood that,

Wherever the next wave

of settlers would land,

They would want apple trees.

By law, you were required to

plant some fruit,

Because that was a symbol

you were going to stay put.

So he would find

a piece of land,

He would clear it,

And he would plant apples

from seeds,

And start a nursery a few years

before the settlers got there,

So by the time they showed up,

He had saplings for sale

for a few cents apiece.

It was a very good business.

But when I started learning

about the botany of apples,

Suddenly there was a problem

with his story --

Why would he be planting them

from seed?

The mystery stems

from a curious fact

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