460 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Koehne gives Siberia and north China as the habitat of P. pruni- 

 folia, and the Himalayas, China, Amur province and Siberia as that 

 of P. baccata. Dr. Regel, as has been noted, makes the deciduous 

 calyx segments the distinguishing characteristic of Pj^rua baccata. 

 This characteristic is also emphasized by Dippel and Koehne. 

 Koehne mentions P. prunifolia as having taken part in the evolu- 

 tion of our cultivated apples. Koehne and Dippel both use the 

 older generic name Malus instead of Pyrus. Dippel gives P. bac- 

 cata odorata with fragrant blossoms as being probably a hybrid; 

 Koehne considers this to be a hybrid of baccata and prunifolia 

 C^M. baccata X prunifolia" ) and states there are many such hy- 

 brids which for the most part can not be determined without the 

 fruit. The odorata variety noted as hardy at Brookings was im- 

 ported from the nursery of L. Spaeth, of Baumschulenweg, near 

 Berlin, where Koehne made many of his observations. 



Dr. Schroeder of Moscow, Russia, told me of having had good re- 

 sults with Pyrus prunifolia as a stock, but outside of Moscow I 

 heard only of P. baccata. 



APPLE SEEDLINGS FOR STOCKS. 



The following article " Apple Seedlings for Stocks," was translated from Rus- 

 sian from a work on "Commercial Horticulture," by Alexander Kondratevitch 

 Grell (Moscow. 1897). 



"Among the seedlings which are used for stocks, I give the pre- 

 ference above all to the Siberian 'berry apple' (crab). There are two 

 varieties of this species which are both used for the propagation 

 of seedlings, viz: Pyrus baccata var. cerasiformis aurea and Py- 

 rus baccata var. cerasiformis rubra. 



"The Siberian apple tree, which is known in gardens under the er- 

 roneous name 'Chinese apple tree,' grows wild in southwest Siberia 

 and northeast China, bears small round fruits, which are golden 

 yellow in the first named variety and reddish in the second named 

 variety. To this I count also a third species, useful in the highest 

 degree but as yet but little distributed among us, viz: Pyrus pruni- 

 folia var. raacrocarpa. Both of these species and their varieties 

 are very pretty sinall trees, which are laden every year with innum- 

 erable yellow or red fruits and give an extremely heavy crop of 

 small seeds. The seedlings of the Siberian apple do not form so 

 thick stems as those of the cultivated apple. When one grafts any 

 desired garden variety on a Siberian crab, the stem below the point 

 of union always remains thinner than above the same, hence an out- 

 growth arises at that place. When, on the contrary, the Siberian 

 crab is grafted on a garden variety, the reverse condition arises, i. 

 e., the stem beneath the point of union becomes thicker than above. 

 The local peasant nurserymen, who are familiar with these charac- 

 teristics, grow the Siberian crab for sale for stocks on forest or gar- 

 den varieties.* 



"The Siberian crabs propagated in this manner grow faster than 

 those grown from seed. Aside from the fact that the varieties 

 grafted on a Siberian crab form neither too thick a stem nor a too 



*By this is meant Pj^rus tualus, which grows wild in parts of Russia. 



