209. PYEUS BIVULARIS OREGON CRAB. 29 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES we believe are not recorded of this species 

 though it would probably be found to possess tonic and sedative 

 properties, as is the case with the allied eastern Black Cherry and 

 recorded of that species iii Part II, p. IS. 



GENUS PYRUS,* L. 



Learns simple or pinnate: stipules free. Flowers white or rose-colored in cor- 

 ymbed cymes; calyx-tube urn-shaped, becoming thick and fleshy in the fruit, limb 

 5-cleft; petals 5, obovate or roundish, stamens numerous; styles 5 (or sometimes 

 2-3), and carpels (of the same number) 2-seeded, with papery or cartilaginous endo- 

 carp and united with the calyx-tube. Fruit a closed pome, fleshy or berry-iike. 



Trees or shrubs. (" Pyrus " is the ancient Latin name of the pear-tree.) 



209. PYRUS RIVULARIS, DOUGL. 

 OREGON CRAB OR CRAB APPLE. 



Ger,, Oregonischer Ilolzapfel' Fr. , Pommier sauvage & Oregon; Sp., 

 Mama/no silvestre de Oregon. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves simple, ovate-lanceolate, 1-3 in. long, acute or 

 acuminate at apex, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, sharply serrate, or occa- 

 sionally on vigorous shoots somewhat three-lobed, with prominent mid-rib 

 depressed above and conspicuously reticulated veins and veinlets, pubescent at 

 first b'.it finally glabrous, dark green -above, paler and slightly pubescent beneath, 

 with rigid pubescent petioles 1-1 in. long; stipules caducous; winter buds small, 

 about T V in. in length, brown, and scales with ciliate margins, the accrescent 

 innermost scales red and about | in. lonyr when fully grown: branchlets pubescent 

 at first and more or less so during the first summer, but finally lustrous reddish 

 and then brown. Flowers ^ to f in. across, in short racemose cymes terminating 

 lateral leafy spurs and with slender pubescent pedicels about ^ in. long and 

 biglandular near the middle; calyx generally pubescent, the lobes acute, pale 

 tomentose within and finally deciduous; petals white, nearly orbicular, with 

 short claws; stamens somewhat shorter than petals; styles 2-4, glabrous. Fruit 

 ripens in September and October and persists on the trees long: after the leaves 

 have fallen, obovoid to oblong, ^ to f in. in length, varying in color from greenish- 

 yellow to red when ripe, with thin subacid edible flesh and comparatively large 

 seeds. 



(The specific name is from the Latin, rivus, a brook, alluding to the fact that 

 the tree is found along the banks of streams.) 



A tree occasionally attaining the height of 30 or 40 ft. (10 m.) with 

 rigid, slender branches, and trunk 18 in. (0.45 m.) in diameter. Grow- 

 ing as it usually does in the shade of lofty forest trees, it usually 

 develops a leaning trunk and angular branches with irregular top, as 

 the exigencies of the light require, and owing to the humidity of the 

 forests of the northwest, are often loaded with moss and lichens to the 

 very branchlets which bear the leaves and fruit. The bark of trunk 

 is quite thin, scarcely } in. in thickness, of an amber-brown color, and 

 exfoliating in thinnish irregular scales. Often the Oregon Crab is 

 found fruiting when no more than a shrub in stature. 



* Sometimes written Pirtw. 



