268 



THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



found to possess," I said at the time, "I hope that the 

 arrangement now proposed will serve to elucidate the 

 confused knowledge of our wild crab apples." With 

 this saving clause in mind, I now 

 confess to a belief that Pyrus Soulardi 

 is not a true species, but is a hy- 

 brid between Pyrus Ioensis and the 

 common apple, Pyrus Malus. The 

 chief considerations which lead me 

 to this conclusion are the 

 facts that the plant, in a 

 wild state, seems to have 

 no connected or normal 

 range, and that various 

 specimens which I have 

 had an opportunity to ex- 

 amine during the past few 

 years have shown almost 

 ^. complete gradations from 

 one of these species to the 

 other. I cannot now de- 

 fine Pyrus Soulardi by any 

 characters which are not 

 also common to one or 

 both of the other species, 



Pyrus ToensiS or /'. Mains. 

 The reader can trace the 

 features of these assumed 

 parents in the various pic- 

 tures of them and of the 

 Soulard type which accompany this text. Pig. 4(i shows 

 outlines of the leaf of I't/nis I<>< usis, and Fig. T>1 of 

 the common apple. Fig. 50 is a good intermediate. 



Fig. 51. Leaf of commmoii apple. 



