NATIVE CRABS 255 



which led Desfontaine to call the species Mains sem- 

 jH-ri'irens, "evergreen crab apple." Pyrus angustifolia 

 is thus characterized by Torrey and Gray in 1848, and 

 the description is excellent: "Leaves lanceolate-oblong, 

 often acute at base, dentate -serrate or almost entire, 

 glabrous, shining above." It is said that the styles 



Fig. 44. Pynis eoronaria from Pennsylvania. Nearly natural size. 



in Pyrus angustifolia are distinct, while they are united 

 in P. coronaria, but this character does not hold. The 

 coherence of the styles in all these wild crabs, as in 

 the apple itself, is very variable, and it seems to me 

 to be entirely unreliable as a distinguishing mark. 

 These species have been confused from the earliest 



