ROSACEA 



355 



acute lobes toraentose on the inner surface; petals white or rose color, obovate; 

 ovary and base of the styles hirsute. Fruit l^'-l^' in diameter, greenish yellow, 

 fragrant, on stout tomentose or villose stalks I'-l^' long. 



A tree, 20-30^ high, with a trunk 12'-18' in diameter, 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, the lateral branchlets usually spinescent. Winter- 

 buds minute, obtuse, pubescent above the middle. Bark ^ thick, covered with long 

 narrow persistent red-brown scales. 



Distribution. Minnesota and Wisconsin, Illinois and western Kentucky to east- 

 ern Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, the Indian Territory, Louisiana, and Texas; the 

 common Crab Apple of the Mississippi basin. 



The Bechtel Crab, a form with large double rose-colored flowers, is often culti- 

 vated in the eastern and central states as an ornament of gardens. Malus Soulardi, 

 Britt., the Soulard Crab, with ovate, elliptic, or obovate usually obtuse leaves rugose 

 and tomentose on the lower surface, and larger fruit, occurring occasionally from 

 Minnesota to eastern Texas, is believed to be a natural hybrid between the common 

 Apple-tree and Malus loensis. 



4. Malus rivularis, Roem. Crab Apple. 



Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, wedge-shaped or rounded at the 

 base, sharply serrate, with appressed glandular teeth, occasionally obscurely 3-lobed, 

 when they unfold pubescent on the lower and puberulous on the upper surface, at 

 maturity thick and firm, dark green and glabrous above, pale and slightly pubescent 



p/(,.27C) 



below, l'-3' long, ^^'-1^ wide, with prominent midribs and primary veins and con- 

 spicuous reticulate veinlets, before falling in the autumn turning bright orange and 

 scarlet; their petioles stout, rigid, pubescent, I'-l^' long; stipules narrowly lanceo- 

 late, acute, ^' I' long. Flowers \' in diameter, on slender pubescent pedicels, in 

 short racemose many-flowered cymes; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous or pu- 

 berulous, the acute lobes minutely apiculate, hoary-tomentose on the inner surface, 

 deciduous from the mature fruit; petals orbicular to obovate, erose or undulate on 

 the margins; styles 2-4, glabrous. Fruit obovate-oblong, \'-^' long, yellow-green, 

 light yellow flushed with red or sometimes nearly red ; flesh thin and dry. 



