268 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



found to possess," I said at the time, "I hope that the 

 arrangement now proposed will serve to elucidate the 

 confused knowledge of our wild crab apples." With 

 this saving clause in mind, I now 

 confess to a belief that Pyrus Soulardi 

 is not a true species, but is a hy- 

 brid between Pyrus loensis and the 

 common apple, Pyrus Mains. The 

 jr chief considerations which lead me 



to this conclusion are -the 

 facts that the plant, in a 

 wild state, seems to have 

 no connected or normal 

 range, and that various 

 specimens which I have 

 had an opportunity to ex- 

 amine during the past few 

 years have shown almost 

 complete gradations from 

 one of these species to the 

 other. I cannot now de- 

 fine Pyrus Soulardi by any 

 characters which are not 

 also common to one or 

 both of the other species, 

 Pyrus loensis or P. Malus. 

 The reader can trace the 

 features of these assumed 

 parents in the various pic- 

 tures of them and of the 

 Soulard type which accompany this text. Fig. 46 shows 

 outlines of the leaf of Pyrus loensis, and Fig. 51 of 

 the common apple. Fig. 50 is a good intermediate. 



Fig. 51. Leaf of com 



apple. 



