2 THE APPLES OF NEW YORK:. , 



austere. The fruit is used for preserves but no variety of this species 

 is cultivated for its fruit. The species is found from Southwestern 

 Pennsylvania to Florida and west to Tennessee and Louisiana. 



3. Pyrus rivularis Doug., the Oregon crabapple, has rather small white 

 flowers, and the calyx lobes become deciduous from the mature fruits. The 

 fruit is about three-fourths of an inch long, oblong, yellowish or blushed, 

 and ripens in autumn. It is used by the Indians. No variety of this 

 species is cultivated for its fruit. This species ranges from Northern 

 California northward along the coast to the Aleutian Islands. 



CULTIVATED HYBRIDS OF NATIVE APPLES. 



Craig and Hume 1 describe four hybrids between the common apple and 

 P. ioivcnsis, or other indigenous American crabapples, which hybrids are 

 cultivated for their fruit in some locations in the Mississippi valley. 

 These are Soulard, Howard (or Hamilton), Mercer (or Fluke) and Ken- 

 tucky Mammoth (or Mathews). The fruits of these hybrids are fit only 

 for culinary uses or for cider. They vary in size from medium to large 

 for a crabapple, are green or yellowish and ripen in winter. These 

 hybrids are valued chiefly where superior hardiness is a prime requisite 

 in a variety, but they are practically unknown and unsought in New York 

 state because there are other kinds which are more valuable here. 



SPECIES INTRODUCED FROM THE OLD WORLD. 



Ornamentals. Several species of apples or crabapples which are 

 indigenous to the old world are grown in this country for ornamental 

 purposes only, as, for example, the flowering crabs and flowering apples 

 from China and Japan. But we are now particularly concerned with 

 those species which have been brought from the old world to be culti- 

 vated here for their fruit, as shown in the common apple and common 

 crabapple. 



The Common Apple. The apples which are grown here for their 

 fruit mostly belong to the species which Linnaeus called Malus. He 

 placed it in the same genus as the pear and thus its botanical name became 

 Pyrus malus L. Recently Britton has separated it from the pear genus 

 on the ground that it has flesh free from grit cells. He mak^s its botani- 

 cal class Malus malus (L.) Britton. 2 This species is particularly character- 

 ized by simple, soft leaves: flowers white or partly tinged with deep rose- 

 pink, short-stemmed and borne in a simple umbel; fruit depressed at both 

 ends; calyx persistent. The under side of the young leaves, the young 

 twigs, the buds, calyx lobes and young fruits are commonly fuzzy. 



This species is very variable. Under cultivation it has developed 

 innumerable varieties as will be noticed farther on. Some varieties 

 which because their fruit is large are called apples doubtless are hybrids 

 between this species and the one next described. 



The Common Crabapple. The crabapples which we cultivate for their 

 fruit are for the most part hybrids between the apple P. malus, and the 

 primitive Siberian crab, or berry crab, called by Linnaeus Pyrus baccata. 



1 Native Crabapples and Their Cultivated Varieties. la. Acad. Sci., VII: 123-141. 1899. 



2 Flora Nor. States and Can., II: 236. 



