TREES AND SHRUBS. 227 



MALUS PLATYCAEPA, Reiih. 



Malus platycarpa, Rehder, n. sp. 



Leaves ovate to elliptic, rounded at the base, abruptly contracted at the rounded IM into a 

 very short point, sharply and usually doubly serrate, the smaller leaves on the flowering branches 

 sometimes nearly crenately serrate, those on very vigorous shoots broadly ovate and usually with 

 several pairs of very broad triangular lobes, the lowest not exceeding 1 centimetre in length, and 

 toward the apex passing into large teeth; when they unfold covered with long white bain cadu- 

 cous except on the midrib, and at maturity glabrous, dark yellow-green, lustrous and slightly rm,ni- 

 lose on the upper surface, light green on the lower surface, from 6 to 8 centimetres long ami from 

 4 to 5.5 centimetres broad, those of vigorous shoots covered on the midrib and the primary veins 

 with a slight villose tomentum and sometimes 1 decimetre long and 9 centimetres broad, with 

 from five to seven pairs of lateral veins slightly impressed above and elevated below. Flowers 

 about 4 centimetres in diameter, on glabrous pedicels from 2 to 4 centimetres in length in from 

 three- to six-flowered raceme-like umbels; calyx-tube obconic, glabrous, the lobes lanceolate, acu- 

 minate, longer than the tube, glabrous on the outer surface, densely tomentose on the inner surface ; 

 petals orbicular-obovate, usually irregularly incisely dentate and abruptly contracted at the btM 

 into a short claw, rounded at the apex, from 1.8 to 2 centimetres long and from l.'J to L8 centi- 

 metres broad, slightly villose on the inside near the base ; stamens slightly shorter than the petals, 

 with dark anthers; styles five, somewhat shorter than the stamens, villose below the middle and 

 connate below for one-third of their length. Fruit on slender pedicels from 3 to 3.5 centimetres 

 long, depressed-globose, with deep cavities at the apex and at the base, slightly ribbed at the 

 apex, from 3.5 to 4 centimetres high and from 5 to 5.5 centimetres in diameter ; calyx persistent, 

 upright, not exceeding the deep apical cavity ; seeds chestnut brown, oblong-obovoid, 9 millimetres 

 in length. 



A small tree, about 6 metres tall, with a trunk about 2 decimetres in diameter, with spreading 

 unarmed branches, and branchlets at first clothed with a thin villose tomentum, becoming glabrous, 

 brown or purple-brown and lustrous at the end of the first year, dull brown the second year, ami 

 ultimately grayish brown. Winter-buds ovate, acutish, glabrous except at the villose margin of 

 the scales, purplish brown. Flowers appear at the end of April. Fruit ripens in October and 

 November. 



North Carolina: near Franklin, Macon County, T. G. Harbison, April 22. 1911 (No. 608, 

 type), April 21, 1911 (No. 504), November 3, 1911 (No. 745), December 3, 191 1 ( No. 757 1 j three 

 miles from Franklin, T. G. Harbison, November 2, 1911 (No. 742, fruit). Georgia : Rabun County, 

 T. G. Harbison, April 25, 1911 (No. 512). 



This species is most closely related to M. fragrans Rehder, but is easily distinguished from this and other species by 

 its broad and large leaves which are rounded and abruptly acuminate at the apex and are never lobed, and by its very 

 large fruit. Mr. Harbison informs us that scattered trees of this species are found near Franklin at a distance of from 

 3 to 15 miles from the locality where he discovered it first. As this tree grows in the fertile soil of bottoms it has been 

 nearly exterminated by the clearing of the valleys. No. 745 has smaller fruit and No. 512 has sev- 

 ers with the petals more broadly oval in outline. The fruit is used for preserves. 1 



1 Malus platycarpa, var. HoopeSH, n. comb. 



Malus coronaria var. Hoopesii, Rehder, Sargent, Trees and Shrubs, ii. 142 (1911). 



This variety, which is only known from cultivated plants, shows by the shape of its leaves and by the I; 

 tion to this species than to M. fragrans. 



