432 



The Apples 



Fig. 377. — Narrow-leaved Crab Apple. 



The wood is hard, close-grained, hght red- 

 dish brown; its speciiic gravity about 0.68. 

 It is sometimes used in the manufacture of 

 tools, handles, and portions of machinery. 

 The tree is also called Southern crab apple. 



The fruit is used for jellies and cider. 

 This is one of the most charming of North 

 American trees on account of its abimdance 

 of showy, fragrant flowers. 



2. AMERICAN CRAB APPLE 

 Malus coronaria (Linnaeus) Miller 



Pyrus coronaria Linnaeus 



Also called Sweet crab, Fragrant crab and 

 Scented crab, this small tree is quite abun- 

 dant, often forming dense thickets, from On- 

 tario to Michigan, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama and northern Louisiana. 

 It often attains a height of 9 meters, with a trunk diameter of 3.5 dm. 



The trunk is short, its branches slender, spreading, often crooked, forming 

 a broad, round-headed tree; the bark is about 

 10 mm. thick, reddish brown, furrowed and 

 scaly; the twigs are white- woolly, soon becom- 

 ing smooth or nearly so, red-brown and finally 

 hght brown and bearing spine-like spurs; the 

 winter buds are small, blunt and bright red; 

 the leaves are membranous, ovate or some- 

 times nearly triangular, 3 to 8 cm. long, usually 

 sharp-pointed, rounded or slightly heart-shaped 

 at the base, margined by sharp glandular teeth, 

 or often lobed, red-brown and velvety beneath 

 when unfolding, soon becoming quite smooth, 

 bright green, with impressed veins above, paler, 

 smooth or nearly so, and prominently veined, 

 beneath, the slender, somewhat glandular leaf- 

 stalk 4 to 5 cm. long. The very fragrant flowers, 

 appearing in May, when the leaves have fuUy 

 expanded, are rose-colored, seldom white, 4 to 5 ^'°- 378- - American Crab Apple, 

 cm. across, in few-flowered cymes, on slender smooth pedicels 1.5 to 4 cm.- long; 

 the calyx-tube is urn-shaped, hair\', the lobes long, sharply pointed, hairy on the 

 inner surface; petals obovate, rounded, sometimes toothed or wavy margined ; sta- 

 mens shorter than the petals ; ovary and base of styles hairy. The fruit ripens late 

 in autumn and remains hanging on the long, slender stalks for some time ; it is de- 



