72 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACEA. 
above, contracted below into long narrow claws, often crenulately serrate or undulate and sometimes 
irregularly and unequally dentate near the base of the blade. The stamens are shorter than the petals 
and for one third of their length, by a partial twist of the filaments at the base, form a tube narrowed 
in the middle and enlarged above. The ovary and the lower part of the styles are coated with 
long pale hairs. The fruit, which ripens late in the autumn, is suspended on slender stems and is 
depressed-globose, and an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. It is green when first fully grown 
and when ripe is yellow-green, somewhat translucent, deliciously fragrant, and covered with a waxy 
exudation. 
* Pyrus coronaria is distributed in Canada from the valley of the Humber River westward along 
the shores of Lake Erie ;! it ranges southward through western New York and Pennsylvania to the 
District of Columbia, and along the Alleghany Mountains to central Alabama, and westward to southern 
Minnesota, eastern Nebraska,” eastern Kansas, the Indian Territory, northern Louisiana, and eastern 
Texas.’ It usually grows in rich rather moist soil in forest glades where it sometimes forms consider- 
able thickets, or less commonly on dry limestone hills, and reaches its greatest size in the valleys of the 
lower Ohio basin and in the states west of the Mississippi River. 
The wood of Pyrus coronaria is heavy and close-grained, but not hard or strong; it contains 
numerous obscure medullary rays, and is brown to light red, with thick yellow sapwood composed of 
eighteen or twenty layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7048, 
a cubic foot weighing 43.92 pounds. It is employed for levers, the handles of tools, and many small 
articles of domestic use. 
The fruit is used for preserves and is often manufactured into cider. 
Pyrus coronaria varies somewhat in the form of its leaves, in the amount and persistence of the 
tomentum which covers their under surface, the young shoots and the calyces, and in the size of the 
fruit ; and, especially west of the Alleghany Mountains, the eastern plant passes into the variety Joensis,' 
which is distinguished by its elliptic-oblong to ovate-oblong leaves irregularly obtusely toothed, and 
while young densely coated on the lower surface, like the young shoots, with thick white tomentum, and 
by its larger fruit which is sometimes two inches in diameter. This is the common form of the Crab- 
apple of the Mississippi valley. 
Pyrus coronaria did not attract the attention of early travelers in America; it appears, however, 
to have been introduced into English gardens as early as 1724,’ and was described by Philip Miller in 
the first edition of the Gardener’s Dictionary published in 1731. | 
As an ornamental plant the American Crab-apple has many attractions; its small size and excellent 
habit render it useful in shrubberies and small gardens; its flowers, which do not appear until after 
those of other Apple-trees have fallen, are large and sweet, and the fragrant fruit, hanging gracefully 
on its long stems and remaining on the branches until after the leaves have dropped, make it interesting 
late in the autumn. Its horticultural value was early appreciated by the settlers of the middle and 
1 Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. Can. 26. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 
i, 145. 
2 Bessey, Bull. Agric. Exper. Stat. Nebraska, iv. art. iv. 20. 
® Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 106 (Man. Pl. W. Texas). 
4 Wood, Cl. Book, rev. ed. 333. 
Pyrus Ioensis, L. H. Bailey, Am. Garden, xii. 478, £. 7, 8. 
The Soulard Crab, which was first introduced many years ago 
into Illinois, has been variously considered a large-fruited variety 
of Pyrus coronaria, a natural hybrid between this species and the 
eultivated Apple-tree, and a native species (Pyrus Soulardi, L. H. 
Bailey, J. c.). Probably the first view is correct, as various forms 
appear to connect it with eastern and western varieties of Pyrus 
coronaria. The leaves are d-ovate to ellipti 
te, usually 
rounded at the apex, and acute or rounded at the base, irregularly 
cerenate-dentate, three or four inches long and two and a half inches 
broad, with short thick petioles; they are thick, rugose, and, while 
young, are coated on the lower surface with thick pale tomentum. 
The fruit is two to two and a half inches in diameter or often much 
smaller, but in color, in the waxy exudation from the skin, and in 
the character of the flesh is not distinguishable from that of the 
eastern tree (Downing, The Fruits and Fruit-Trees of America, ed. 2, 
426). This form, which is not common in a wild state, appears to 
be distributed from Minnesota to Texas (L. H. Bailey, /. c.). 
5 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ii. 176. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 908. 
® Malus ; sylvestris, Virginiana, floribus odoratis, No. 3. 
Malus sylvestris, floribus odoratis, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 55. 
