246 THE APPLE FAMILY. 



large broad clusters which later, after they have been duly fertilized, de- 

 velop into heavy, toppling bunches of scarlet fruit. More noticeable then 

 is the shrub than at any other time, as it casts perhaps the only bit of 

 colour about the surrounding fully grown and intensely green foliage. 



Hovering about this American species there is none, it would seem, of 

 the superstitious fancy, the studied avoidance which so closely is associated 

 with the Rowan tree, Sorbus aucuparia of Europe ; long known for its 

 intimacy with witches, its potency in casting spells and its ability to remove 

 curses. 



NARROW=LEAVED CRAB=APPLE. i^Plate LXXIII.) 

 Mains a7igustifblia. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Aj>ple. Pi7ik or ivhite. Fj-agrant. Florida and Louisiana io March-May. 



New Jersey and westward. Fruit : September. 



Flcnvers : large ; growing on long pedicels in loose few flowered cymes. Calyx: 

 campanulate ; pubescent, with five sharply pointed lobes. Corolla : with five 

 rounded, clawed petals. Stamens : numerous. Styles : two to five, nearly separate. 

 Fn/lt : a pome about an inch in diameter. Leaves: simple, with slender pubes- 

 cent petioles ; oblong-lanceolate, or ovate, bluntly pointed at the apex and 

 rounded or narrowed at the base; serrate; on the shoots sometimes slightly 

 lolled; dark green; shiny and glabrous above, sometimes pubescent beneath. 

 Twigs, often spine pointed. 



When the leaves of this small tree are very young, having, in fact, just 

 timidly unfolded, its exquisite rosy and fragrant blossoms come into full 

 bloom. It is then still so early in the season that the purplish grey colour- 

 ing of its twigs forms for them a misty background, and only such other 

 wide-awake shrubs as the thorn, the shad-bush and the spice-bush are 

 laden with flowers. But everything is stirring : the march is onward. 

 Long before we would have them go, however, the flower's petals are car- 

 ried away by the wind and its calyx-tubes begin to enlarge into small green 

 pomes slightly flattened at their extremities, hard and unsympathetic to eat, 

 and yet which are delightfully fragrant. 



M. coro7idria, sweet scepted crab tree which also grows in thickets and 

 woods and from South Carolina extends as far northward as Ontario, pro- 

 duces larger and even more beautiful flowers than its relative, and they 

 also are very fragrant. Its leaves are broader than the others and have 

 toothed, or often lobed edges and decidedly rounded or cordate bases. 

 When they are young rich shades of red and maroon mingle on their 

 otherwise green surfaces, and on the lower surface they are sparingly pubes- 

 cent along the veins. Only as they grow old do they become entirely 

 smooth and settled down to a sombre shade of green. In September the 

 fruit ripens, a fragrant, waxy, greenish yellow pome, much larger and more 



