TREES AND SHRUBS. 



MALUS DAWSONIANA, Eehd. 



(Malus fusi 



Malus Dawsoniana, hybr. nov. 



Leaves oval to ovate, short-acuminate, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, coarsely and 

 unequally or almost doubly crenate-serrate, coated with thin cobwebby tomentum when unfolding, 

 glabrous at maturity, dark yellowish green above, paler green beneath, from 5 to 9 centimetres 

 long and from 3 to 6 centimetres broad ; petioles slender, glabrous, from 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres 

 in length. Inflorescence five to seven-flowered ; pedicels from 2 to 2.5 centimetres long, slightly 

 villous ; calyx-tube villous outside, the lobes triangular-lanceolate, densely villous on the inner 

 surface; petals oblong-ovate or oblong-obovate, 1.7 millimetres long, white, slightly villous at 

 the base ; stamens numerous, about half as long as the petals ; styles five or often four, slightly 

 shorter than the longest stamens, connate at the base, glabrous ; ovary five or often four-celled. 

 Fruit elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, slightly impressed at the base, crowned at the rounded 

 apex by the remnants of the small calyx, yellow or greenish yellow, usually with a red cheek, 

 from 2.5 to 3 centimetres long and from 1.8 to 2 centimetres thick, slightly acid, and when ripe 

 soon becoming pulpy; seeds oblong-obovate, 8 millimetres in length, light brown. 



A tree, with ascending or spreading branches, slightly pubescent during their first year, 

 becoming purplish brown and glabrous in their second season, with reddish brown bark broken 

 into thin scaly plates easily separable. Winter-buds ovate, reddish brown, lustrous, from 3 to 4 

 millimetres long, grayish pubescent at the apex. Flowers appear in May with the leaves. 

 Fruit ripens about the middle of October. 



There can be little doubt that Malus Dawsoniana is the offspring of a cross-fertilization of the Crab-apple of 

 northwestern America, Malus fusca, O. K. Schneider, by a cultivated or naturalized Apple-tree, Malus communis, Poiret. 

 It was raised at the Arnold Arboretum from seed collected by C. G. Pringle in Oregon in 1881. Of these seedlings 

 three are still growing in the Arboretum ; two of these are shrubby trees now about 5 metres high and represent the 

 true Malus fusca, while the third plant has grown into a tree of about 7 metres in height, with a short trunk 26 cen- 

 timetres in diameter, and is the plant here described. In habit and in its scaly dark reddish brown bark it resembles 

 Malus fusca, but the leaves rarely show any tendency to become lobed and are generally broader and more oval, 

 with a more crenate serration. The flowers are almost twice as large as those of Malus fusca, and the fruits, 

 though preserving the shape of those of Malus fusca, are about twice as large, with a persistent calyx, and with 

 four or more often five locules. The inflorescence is more like that of Malus communis, but the pedicels are as slender 

 as those of Malus fusca. It is probable that an orchard of Apple-trees or an Apple-tree escaped from cultivation 

 existed in the neighborhood of the wild Crab from which Mr. Pringle collected the seeds. There would be nothing 

 remarkable in such a hybrid, for all the species of Malus show a decided tendency to natural hybridization. This plant 

 is named in honor of Mr. Jackson Dawson, the superintendent of the Arnold Arboretum, by whom it was raised. 



As an ornamental tree Malus Dawsoniana has little to recommend it ; there are many other more beautiful forms of 

 the genus Malus, and the fruit apparently possesses no pari h would make this hybrid a desirable 



starting-point from which to breed a new race of apples. It is, however, interesting as the first hybrid known of Malus 

 fusca. 



Alfred Rehder. 



Arnold Arboretum. 



