434 



The Apples 



4. SOULARD CRAB APPLE Malus Soulardi (Bailey) Britton 



Pyrus Soulardi Bailey 



A small, stout, upright tree, similar to the other American crab apples in form 

 and flowers, but in fruit it rather resembles the common apple and is considered 

 by some authors to be a natural hybrid of it and one of the native species. It 

 occurs but sparingly from Minnesota southward to Texas. 



The bark is scaly and brownish; twigs stout, densely white-woolly at first, 



becoming smooth, red-brown and 

 finally dark gray-brown; winter buds 

 small, red-brown, the scales hairy- 

 margined. Leaves rather thick and 

 wrinkled, ovate-elliptic or obovate, 3 

 to 8 cm. long, mostly blunt at the 

 apex, rounded or somewhat heart- 

 shaped at the base, irregularly scal- 

 lop-toothed or occasionally lobed, 

 woolly when young, when old bright 

 green and smooth or nearly so above, 

 woolly beneath; leaf-stalk woolly, 2 

 to 2.5 cm. long. The flowers, ap- 

 pearing in May, are 5 cm. across, 

 rose pink, in rather dense cymes, on slender hairy pedicels; the bell-shaped calyx 

 is white- woolly, its lobes long, sharp-pointed, hairy; stamens large, orange- colored. 

 The fruit is flat-globose, about 5 cm. in diameter, 3 cm. high, suspended on 

 smooth, slender pedicels 2 to 4 cm. long, greenish yellow, fragrant, the flesh firm 

 and less acidulous than that of the other American crab apples, its basal hollow 

 broad. 



It is cultivated in the north central States for its fruits, which are highly praised 

 for cider and jeUies, being used as a substitute for the Quince, where that fruit 

 will not thrive, and is also planted for ornament. 



The Siberian Crab apple, Malus haccata (Linnaeus) Borckhausen, much culti- 

 vated for its fruit, has become spontaneous in northern New England; its fruit 

 is but little hollowed at the base, crimson to yellow. 



Fig. 380. Soulard Crab. 



5. APPLE Malus Malus (Linnjeus) Britton 

 Pyrus Mains Linnaeus 



This well-known fruit tree is a native of western Asia, and is a frequent escape 

 to woods, thickets, and roadsides of the eastern United States; its maximum height 

 is about 12 meters, with a trunk diameter up to 9 dm. 



The trunk is usually short, with outspreading branches, forming a broad, 



