162 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



experiments in. this line for many years. His object was 

 not to secure additional hardiness, but to infuse more 

 character and sprightliness into the common varieties. 

 The outcome was in no case a union of the two species. 

 The seedlings all divided into two classes. Those that 

 bore in clusters were crabs and those that had the required 

 size and fruited on spurs were common apples, in no case 

 of desirable quality. The only varieties yet retained are 

 the Siberian Harvey and the Foxley. These are very 

 small, nearly round, and grow in clusters like the crabs. 



A study of this subject from the Kew Gardens at London 

 to the Volga bluffs in Russia will lead to the belief that at 

 least some of our large crabs are crosses of the crabs of 

 east Europe with what we call the Virginia crab and 

 varieties of this type. 



167. Our Native Crab apple. The most valuable native 

 species of the United States is Pyrus coronaria. As found 

 in the prairie States it differs some in habit of tree and 

 flower and fruit, and Professor Bailey has given it as a dis- 

 tinct species under the name of Pyrus loensis. This race 

 as found in the early days of prairie settlement in the 

 hazel-thicket borders of native timber belts varied in habit 

 of growth, leaf, and size of fruit fully as much as our 

 native plums. Some of the selected varieties attain fair 

 apple size under cultivation. On the college grounds at 

 Ames, Iowa, can be seen a tree loaded every year with fruit 

 over two and one half inches in diameter and of nearly the 

 shape of a medium-sized Ehode Island greening. This 

 variety is known as the Fluke crab. Mr. B. A. Mathews, 

 of Knoxville, Iowa, grows for market a variety fully as 

 large as the Fluke. In fact, in about every neighborhood 

 of the prairie States especially in Iowa can be found 

 isolated trees and sometimes several trees together of these 

 large-fruited varieties. Professor Bailey expresses the be 



