THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 



BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION. 



The apple is classed with a natural group of plants in which the 

 fruit is more or less fleshy and contains seed cells enclosed by either 

 bony or parchment-like carpels. Some botanists still hold to the 

 older classification in which this group of plants is included in the 

 great order Rosaces under the suborder Poniecr, but there is a 

 tendency among modern botanists to raise the group to the rank of 

 an order under the name Pomacece. In this suborder or order, 

 whichever it may be called, there are several genera. One includes 

 the mountain ashes, one the Juneberries, one the hawthorns, one 

 the quinces, and one the pears, apples and crabapples. This last 

 genus botanists have called Pyrus. Within this genus there are many 

 species of apples and crabapples, most of which are native to the old 

 world. Sargent, from whom the three following descriptions are 

 largely derived, recognizes in the apples which are indigenous to 

 North America the three species named below. 1 



NATIVE WILD APPLES. 



1. Pyrus coronaria L., the fragrant crab, which is found in glades from 

 Canada, Western New York and the shores of Lake Erie southward 

 along the mountains to Alabama and westward to the Missouri valley 

 and Texas. The flowers are large, showy, on slender pedicels, white or 

 rose-colored and delightfully fragrant. Leaves ovate to triangular ovate 

 and often three lobed. The fruit may reach a diameter of one and one- 

 half inches. The calyx is persistent. The skin, which is green or be- 

 comes yellowish, is waxy and has a peculiar aroma. The fruit ripens late, 

 is sour and almost bitter but has long been valued for making preserves. 

 No varieties of this species are cultivated for the fruit. 



In the prairie states this species runs into the variety iowensis Wood, 

 which some regard as a distinct species. There are known in cultivation 

 hybrids between this and the common apple as we shall see later. The 

 fruit of ioivensis sometimes reaches a diameter of two inches. 



2. Pyrus angustifolia Ait., the native crabapple of the southern states, 

 is much like P. coronaria except that its leaves are not lobed but are 

 lanceolate oblong and acute at the base. The flowers are white or rose- 

 pink and very fragrant; calyx persistent; fruit about one inch in diameter, 

 pale green or yellowish, ripens in winter and is then very fragrant but 



N. A., IV: 70-78. 



