354 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



rigid subulate points, hoary-tonientose on the inner surface; petals white or rose 

 color, obovate, of ten crenately serrate or undulate at the apex, sometimes irregularly 

 and unequally dentate below; ovary and base of the styles hirsute. Fruit on long 

 slender stems, 1-1^' in diameter, green when fully grown, yellow-green and some- 

 what translucent at maturity, very fragrant and covered with a waxy exudation. 



A tree, 25-30 higli, with a trunk 12'-14' in diameter, dividing 8-10 above 

 the ground into several stout spreading branches forming a wide open head, and 

 branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear, glabrous or slightly pubescent, 

 bright red-brown, and marked by occasional small pale lenticels in their first winter, 

 and developing in their second year stout, spur-like, somewhat spinescent lateral 

 branchlets. Winter-buds minute, obtuse, with bright red scales scarious and ciliate 

 on the dark margins. Bark ^' thick, longitudinally fissured, the outer layer sepa- 

 rating into long narrow persistent red-brown scales. "Wood heavy, close-grained, 

 not strong, light red, with yellow sap wood of 18-20 layers of annual growth; used 

 for levers, the handles of tools, and many small domestic articles. 



Distribution. Rich rather moist soil in forest glades, often forming wide thick- 

 ets; less commonly on dry limestone hills; valley of the Humber River, Ontario, 

 westward along the northern shores of Lake Erie, and southward through western 

 New York and Pennsylvania to the District of Columbia, and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to central Alabama, and westward to northern Missouri. 



Often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern and northern states. 



3. Malus loensis, Britt. Crab Apple. 



Leaves ovate, oval, or oblong, acute or rounded at the apex, usually acute or 

 narrowed and rounded at the base, crenately serrate, and on vigorous shoots wedge- 

 shaped at the broad base and usually incisely lobed, with acute coarsely serrate 



lobes, when they unfold hoary-tomentose below and nearly glabrous above, and at 

 maturity thick and firm, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale yellow- 

 green and tomentulose on the lower surface, 3'-4' long, ll'-2^' wide, with slender 

 remote primary veins, turning yellow in the autumn before falling; their petioles 

 stout, covered at first with hoary tomentum, becoming tomentulose, I'-l^' long. 

 Flo"wers 1^-2' across when expanded, in few-flowered clusters, on hoary-tomen- 

 tose pedicels I'-l^' long; calyx coated with thick matted snow-white hairs, the 



