January 12, 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



31 



Crab-apples. These plants for the 

 decoration of northern gardens are of 

 first-rate importance, and from its early 

 days much attention has been paid at 

 the Arnold Arboretum to the collection 

 and study of the different species, hy- 

 brids and varieties. The flowering of 

 the Crab-apples is one of the important 

 Arboretum events and, although the 

 season is ten or twelve days late, some 

 of the Asiatic species are already in 

 bloom and during three or four weeks 

 Apple blossoms can be seen here. 



From the Crab-apple of southeastern 

 Europe and western and central Asia 

 (,Malus pumilo) most of the Apples of 

 our orchards have been developed, al- 

 though in some of these the blood of 

 the Crab of northern and central 

 Europe (Malus sylvestris) can be trac- 

 ed. The Paradise Apple is a very dwarf 

 form of Malus pumila used by nursery- 

 men as a stock for dwarf pomological 

 varieties. The first of the Crab-apples 

 of eastern Asia known to Europeans 

 {Malus baccata) was first cultivated in 

 Europe one hundred and thirty years 

 ago. It is a native of eastern Siberia, 

 and is a tall, narrow tree with large 

 white flowers appearing with the 

 leaves, and fruit the size of a large pea. 

 The Siberian Crab, as it is popularly 

 called, is a handsome, very hardy 

 plant; its great value, however, is that, 

 crossed with the cultivated Apple-tree, 

 it has given rise to a race of Apples 

 like the Hyslop and the Transcendent 

 Crabs which can be grown in regions 

 too cold for the successful cultivation 

 of the ordinary Apple. The hybrids 

 are known as Siberian Crabs, and many 

 named varieties can now be found in 

 nurseries in the extreme northern part 

 of the country. They are fast growing, 

 erect and shapely trees, and well worth 

 a place in northern gardens for the 

 beauty of their flowers and brilliant 

 scarlet or yellow fruits which are 

 usually oblong or ovate in shape and 

 from an inch to an inch and half in 

 length. The fruit is acid but makes 

 excellent jellies and preserves for 

 which it is largely used. Mains barrata 



has been used in cold regions as a 

 stock on which to graft the ordinary 

 Apple, but its liability to the blight 

 which attacks Pear-trees reduces its 

 value for this purpose. The largest 

 specimen of Malus baccata in the neigh- 

 borhood of Boston is standing in front 

 of the gardener's house in the Harvard 

 Botanic Garden in Cambridge. 



One of the handsomest of the Crab- 

 apples in the Arboretum collection is 

 a Korean variety of Malus baccata 

 which has been distinguished as var. 

 Jackii. It was raised here in 1905 

 from seed collected by Mr. Jack near 

 Seoul. The plants, although still small, 

 are shapely in habit with straight clean 

 stems and regularly spaced spreading 

 branches; the leaves are thick, long- 

 stalked, from four to six inches in 

 length, dark dull green above and pale 

 below; the flowers are pure white and 

 nearly two inches in diameter, and the 

 dark crimson shining fruits, which are 

 often half an inch long, hang grace- 

 fully on long drooping stems. A wide- 

 ly distributed form of Malus baccata, 

 the var. mandshuri'ca, differs in its 

 broader, more or less hairy leaves. 

 This tree is distributed from the 

 Amoor region to western China and 

 Japan where it is common northward, 

 and in Hokkaido is often found in 

 Alder woods in the neighborhood of 

 the coast. 



Malus prunlfolia. In one of its 

 forms (var. rinki) this tree has been 

 the most economically valuable of all 

 the Asiatic Apple-trees. Mains pruni- 

 folia, although it has been known in 

 western gardens for many years, is 

 still unknown as a wild plant, but Wil- 

 son found growing wild its variety 

 rinki in central and western China. 

 This variety differs from Mains piwii- 

 folia in the shape of the leaves and 

 the amount of their hairy covering, 

 and in the shape and color of the fruit 

 which varies from greenish yellow to 

 yellow or red. Tliis is the Apple 

 which has been cultivated by the 

 Chinese probably for centuries. The 

 fruit of the cultivated tree seen by 

 Wilson was rarely more than an inch 

 and a quarter in diameter, green or 

 greenish yellow with a rosy cheek, or 

 sometimes almost entirely red and had 



a pleasant bitter-sweet flavor. He 

 found that the fruit grown in the cold 

 region near the Tibetan border was of 

 better quality than that produced in 

 the warmer regions further east. 

 Until the coming of foreigners into 

 Japan introduced American and Euro- 

 pean varieties of Apples the var. rinki 

 was a commonly cultivated fruit tree 

 in Hondo, although now it has almost 

 entirely disappeared from Japan. 



Only the Apples already mentioned, 

 Malus sylvestris of western and north- 

 ern Europe, M. pnmilu of southeastern 

 Europe and western and central Asia, 

 M. baccata of eastern Siberia, M. pruni- 

 folia, var. rinki of western China, and 

 the species of eastern North America 

 are of economic importance to man. 

 The fruits of the last are sometimes 

 used domestically in making jellies 

 and preserves but are not in very gen- 

 eral use. All the other Crab apples 

 are only valuable for the beauty of 

 their flowers and fruits in the decora- 

 tion of gardens. The American Crab- 

 apple bloom later than the Old World 

 species, and their flowers do not open 

 until the leaves are well grown. The 

 flowers are more or less deeply tinged 

 with pink or rose color and are ex- 

 ceedingly fragrant. The fruits of the 

 eastern species are depressed-globose, 

 light green, sometimes turning pale 

 yellow when fully ripe, lustrous, 

 covered with a waxy exudation, and 

 more fragrant than the fruit of other 

 Apple-trees. The fruit falls without 

 having become soft, and remains on 

 the ground a long time without losing 

 its shape. The fruit of the north- 

 northwestern species {M. fusca) is 

 oblong, not more than three-quarters 

 of an inch in length, yellow-green or 

 yellow often flushed with red. or oc- 

 casionally entirely red. The flesh of 

 this little apple is thin and dry. 



The American Crab-apples are good 

 plants for wood borders and forest 

 glades, and can be used to advantage 

 with the Flowering Dogwood (Cnrtius 

 florida), the different Shade Bushes 

 (AmelnncMer) , and some of the Ameri- 

 can Hawthorns to enliven forest parks 

 and country roadsides. American 

 Crap-apples, however, are still little 

 known or appreciated by American 

 gardeners, and only one of them, the 

 so-called Bechtel Crab, a double-flgw- 

 ered form of M. ioensis of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, is found in American 

 nurseries. The flowers of this tree 

 resemble small double pink roses and 

 attract more attention than almost 

 any other plant in the Arboretum. 

 Among the handsomest of the species 



IND 



TO VOI-I^IVI 



XXVI 



Following precedent we shall send copies of the index to Vol. XXVI only to those of 

 our readers who make request for them. They are ready now and will be mailed 

 promptly to all who express a desire for same. 



