THE APPLE, THE CRAB AND THE HYBRID. 223 



There is another class of apples that goes by the name of crab, of 

 which the Soulard crab is a type. These are sometimes referred to 

 as native crabs and as having- come from the Pyrus coronaria, our 

 common wild crab, but so far as I can get at it, it is hard to show 

 that the Soulard is of the same species as the common Pyrus coro- 

 naria. Prof. Bailey classed it at one time as a separate species. 



The Pyrus malus is distinguished from the Pyrus baccata by its 

 wooly leaves, which is common when its leaves are small any way, 

 and it is one of its characteristics that the calyx remains on the 

 fruit, and the flesh is translucent like the flesh of the crab. Among 

 the true Pyrus malus group of apples, we find large and small ap- 

 ples, long and short stemmed apples; some with a large calyx and 

 others with a small calyx; so I think that some of the apples which 

 we now call crab may be true Pyrus malus. 



There is one other point 1 thought might be of interest along this 

 line this morning, and that is something of the variation of buds on 

 trees. Most of us know that seedlings vary — that is what we were talk- 

 ing about here this morning — but comparatively few of us think that 

 the buds on trees differ also. But this is clearly shown in a good many 

 of our cultivated plants that have originated from the variation of 

 buds. Seedlings vary from one another, as we all know, but buds 

 and branches on the same plant also vary greatly. This year was a 

 favorable year for apples, and in soine places a superabundance of 

 nourishment, apparently, produced abortive fruit. I know of a Red 

 June tree that bore on a water sprout various elongated apples. I 

 call attention to this subject here, because I have just received the 

 peculiar specimen I hold in my hand. (See illustration). This is from 

 a pippin tree and came from Ohio. The tree on which it grew had a 

 good crop of normal fruit, but the tips of the summer's growth had 

 a cluster of fruit like this on them (somewhat pear-shaped). I 

 have been asked to explain how it happened. I think this is a bud 

 variation due to the large amount of nourishment the tree was re- 

 ceiving during the exceptionally favorable weather of the pastsum- 

 mer, and it manifested itself in this way. These variations are more 

 apt to appear where a plant is given special care, and in this case 

 the bud variation has resulted in the production of this peculiar, 

 elongated fjruit, which resembles a pear as much as an apple. It is 

 simply a case of bud variation. 



Mr. A. H. Brackett: In Meehan's Monthly, I saw a case of 

 an apple and pear growing on the same tree. 



Pro. Green: Very often it is claimed that the pear shape of 

 apples is due to pollenization of the apple blossom with the 

 pear. But this apple tree bore pear shaped fruit, and it blos- 

 somed in summer, about the middle of June, when there were 

 no pear trees in blossom at all. So it could not have been 

 poUenized by pear pollen. 



Mr. Harris: Did you photograph that? 



Prof. Green. I did. 



