210 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



dent for some sixty years. This Apple (M. pruni- 

 folia, var. rinki) grows wild in the mountainous parts 

 of central China where I was fortunate enough to dis- 

 cover it in the spring of 1901, and later secured seeds 

 which resulted in its successful introduction to our 

 gardens. Previous to this discovery it was known 

 only from plants cultivated in Japan, and by most 

 botanists was considered a very doubtful plant. 

 From Japan it was introduced to Europe about 1854, 

 and distributed by von Siebold as Mains ringo. In 

 habit this species resembles the common Apple but 

 its leaves are rather different, the flower stalks are 

 much longer, and the fruit is not impressed at the 

 summit. As a fruit tree the Chinese Apple is culti- 

 vated in central and western China, from river level, 

 where the climate is very warm, to altitudes of 9,500 

 feet in the more mountainous parts, where a severe 

 climate obtains. In northern China and Korea 

 it is cultivated sparingly over a wide area. The 

 fruit is small, seldom more than one and one fourth 

 inch in diameter and slightly longer than broad, of 

 a pleasant bitter-sweet flavor and varies in color 

 from greenish to greenish yellow and is rosy on one 

 side. Occasionally it is nearly all red. Formerly 

 this Chinese Apple was cultivated in Japan for its 

 fruit, but since the introduction of varieties of the 



