Addisonia 31 



(Plate 208) 



MALUS lOENSIS PLENA 

 Bechtel's Crab Apple 



Native oj Illinois 



Family MalacEae Appi<e Family 



Malus angustifolia plena Hartwig, Mitt. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 16: 268. 1897. 

 Malus coronaria plena C. K. Schneider, in Silva-Tarouca, Uns. Freil.-Laubg. 264. 



1913. 

 Malus ioensisf. plena Rehder, Mitt. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 23: 262. 1914. 



This tree is unusual among the crab apples on account of the 

 double flowers which are rose-like, deliciously fragrant, and of a 

 beautiful modulation of pink shades. The tree in full bloom is a 

 charming sight and will adorn any collection. The tree from which 

 the illustration was prepared has been in the arboretum of the New 

 York Botanical Garden since 1908. The species Malus ioensis is 

 a native of the middle west. This double variety was found wild 

 and apparently native near Staunton, Illinois, and was introduced 

 into cultivation by the firm of E. A. Bechtel's Sons, of Staunton, 

 about 1891. 



Bechtel's crab apple is a small tree, usually under ten feet high, 

 though sometimes becoming taller. The branches of the previous 

 year are of a deep purple and smooth. The leaves have hairy 

 petioles an inch and a quarter long or less. The blades are oblong- 

 elliptic to oval, up to three inches long and an inch broad; the 

 margins are irregularly serrate, and sometimes obscurely lobed, or 

 in those of the young shoots the lobing much more pronounced; the 

 lower surface is tomentose or villous, and the apex and base acute 

 or somewhat obtuse. The double flowers, one and a half to two 

 inches in diameter, are in clusters, the buds globose and of a deep 

 rose-pink, turning to pink when fully expanded. 



George V. Nash. 



