CLASSIFICATION. 77 



THE APPLE. 



Leaves simple; flowers showy, in a simple cluster or simple 

 umbel; fruit sunken at both ends, especially at the base; usually 

 without grit dells; styles usually united at the base. Apple 

 growers in America are concerned with the following species: 



* Exotic; leaves simply and evenly serrate, ovate or oblong. 



\ 

 P. Malus, Linn. Common Apple. — Cultivated from Eu- 

 rope; tree with buds, lower face of the leaves (when young) 

 and calyx woolly ; flowers white and tinged with pink, on short, 

 woolly peduncles; fruit various, but always holding the calyx 

 lobes upon its apex. 



P baccdta, Linn. Sibeeiapt Crab Apple. — ^From Europe. 

 Small treej spreading, with hard, wiry, smooth shoots, long 

 and smooth petioles and pedicels, narrower smooth leaves, and 

 a small, hard, translucent fruit from which the calyx falls be- 

 fore maturity. Transcendent, Hyslop, and various' other im- 

 proved Crabs are probably hybrids with P. Malus. It has 

 many forms, particularly as to fruit. The term crab apple in 

 America is applied to any small, hard, sour apple. It is prop- 

 erly applied, however, only to those sorts having clearly marked 

 qualities of P baccata. Ifot all crab apples are tart, astringent 

 and devoid of dessert qualities. Even Shakespeare slanders this 

 fruit when he says in King Lear "She's as like as a crab's like 

 an apple." 



* * Wild species, with some of the leaves irregularly cut- 

 toothed, or even lobed; flowers bright rose-colored, and the fruit 

 greenish. Calyx persistent. 



P. corondria, Linn. Ameeicaw or Gaelajstd Ceab Apple. — 

 Small tree, soon smooth, with the mostly triangular ovate leaves 



