CHAPTER XXXV: THE APPLES 



Family Rosace/E 



Genus MALUS, Hall. 



Trees which are parents of cultivated apples. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, deciduous. Flowers showy, perfect, fragrant, 

 in terminal cymes. Fruit fleshy, enclosing papery 5-celled core. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves smooth at maturity; flowers rose pink. 



B. Blades of leaves ovate, blunt, minutely serrate, thin, 



(M. coronaria) wild crab apple 

 BB. Blades of leaves narrow, pointed, coarsely toothed, 

 leathery. 



{M. augusiijolia) narrow-leaved crab apple 

 AA. Leaves tomentose beneath; flowers pale. 

 B. Fruit flattened, 2 to 4 inches in diameter. 

 C. Stems slender. (Exotic.) 



{M. Malus) COMMON apple 

 CC. Stems stout (A/. Soulardi) soulard's apple 



BB. Fruit not flattened, to i^ inches in diameter. 



C. Flowers white. {M. rividaris) Oregon crab 



CC. Flowers pink. (M. loensis) iowa crab 



The genus Malus is native to the whole of eastern Asia. 

 We have four native species. Our cultivated crab apples and 

 the hundreds of orchard varieties have their ancestral home 

 somewhere in Asia Minor. For centuries horticulturists have 

 been at work improving wild apples. In Europe and in America 

 the effort is to get better fruit. In the Far East the aim has been 

 to produce the finest flowering trees. The results are both ad- 

 vantageous to the horticulture of the world. 



Closely allied to apples are the other pome fruits, pears and 

 quinces. Neither are native to America, though they are widely 

 cultivated here. 



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