428 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



more. But where full grown trees are already on the ground they 

 should be treated like " company," whether they stand in the front, 

 flank, or rear, of the house, or the house-site. 



Most of the apples noted for their excellence are borne on trees 

 that are handsome to the eye, so that in naming a small list for 

 places where there is room for them, the character of the fruit, and 

 its successive maturity, is alone considered. The following is a list 

 of twelve summer and autumn sorts. Yellow Harvest, Sweet Bough, 

 Early Joe, Red Astrachan (for its beauty and for cooking), Graven- 

 stein, American Summer Pearmain, Summer Queen, Autumn 

 Bough, Porter, Jersey Sweeting, Maiden's Blush, Fall Pippin. 



Those who have space to plant orchards for winter apples, will 

 find works on orchard fruits, adapted to their wants. 



THE CRAB-APPLE. Pyrus malus acerba. All the crab-apples 

 are noted for the beauty and the exquisite fragrance of their blos- 

 somS; which exceed in size those of the 

 FlG - '40- common apple tree. Their forms are 



similar, but smaller and lower, being 

 from twelve to sixteen feet in height, 

 and somewhat greater breadth at ma- 

 turity. The young wood of the wild 

 European and American varieties is 

 thorny, crooked, and hard, so that the 

 tree can be used for hedges. Growing 



in a rich soil, and preserved from the attacks of the borer, the crab- 

 apple tree becomes a massy-foliaged low tree, whose lower boughs 

 nearly rest on the ground at their extremities. 



THE AMERICAN OR SWEET-SCENTED CRAB, P. m. coronaria, is a 

 finer variety than the wildings of Europe, having more fragrant 

 blossoms, which cover the tree in May. The foliage is said also to 

 remain on the tree longer. The fruit is round, about an inch in 

 diameter, a pure green color, and of a pungent acidity that has 

 made the phrase " as sour as a crab " a by-word in the language. 

 The leaves when touched by the frost have an odor of violets. Its 

 bark is rough and scaly. 



