Addisonia 23 



(Plate 204) 



MALUS NIEDZWETZKYANA 

 Niedzwetzky's Apple 



Native of southwestern Siberia and Caucasus 



Family Mai^acear Appi^e; Family 



Mains Niedzzvetzkyana Dieck; Koehne, Deuts. Dendrol. 259. 1893. 

 Pyrus Niedzwetzkyana Hemsl. Bot. Mag. pi. 7975. 1904. 



This is a most unusual apple, striking in all its phases, all parts 

 partaking of some shade of red — the bark is very dark purple red, 

 the flowers a deep rose purple, and the fruit a deep crimson purple 

 outside with the flesh of a lighter shade; even the young leaves are 

 purplish, and the mature ones turn red in the autumn. It is a small 

 tree of rather irregular habit, usually attaining a height in cultiva- 

 tion of ten or fifteen feet. In flower or fruit it is an unusually 

 beautiful sight, and is worthy of a place among our most decorative 

 apples. 



The tree from which the illustration was prepared is in the arbor- 

 etum of the New York Botanical Garden, and was secured by 

 exchange with the Royal Gardens, Kew, England, in 1901. Mr. 

 Hemsley in the Botanical Magazine states that the European stock 

 of this tree seems to have been raised from seed of trees cultivated 

 in Kashgar, where it is called "kisil alma," or red apple, on account 

 of the prevailing color of all its parts. It flowered at Kew Gardens 

 in the spring of 1904. Our plant, having been received from Kew, 

 would indicate an origin in the Kashgar region. 



Niedzwetsky's apple is a rather small tree of irregular habit, 

 usually ten to fifteen feet high, with the straight flowering branches 

 long and stiff and with the smooth bark a dark purple red. The 

 young leaves usually have a purplish hue, this color being confined 

 later to the petiole and the midrib. The mature leaves have peti- 

 oles one to two inches long. The blades range from oblong to 

 oblong-lanceolate and lanceolate, are from one to two inches long 

 when young and from three to five inches long and one to two 

 inches wide when mature; they are rather thick, and glabrous 

 except usually for a slight hairiness along the midrib, with the 

 margins rather irregularly serrate; the apex and base are acute. 

 The numerous flowers are one and a half to two inches in diameter, 

 and are clustered at the ends of the short lateral branches, on stalks 

 less than an inch long. The calyx-tube, or hypanthium, is woolly; 

 the lanceolate sepals are about a quarter of an inch long. The 



