472 



NOTES FROM A GARDEN HERBARIUM. 



The best character of distinction between P. angustifolia 

 and P. coronaria, it seems to me, is the thick, half-ever- 

 green, shining leaves of the former — a character which 

 r^, appears to have 



\\ been omitted in 



the later books. 

 I presume that 

 it was this 

 character of 

 leaves which 

 led D e s f o n - 

 taine to call 

 the species Ma- 

 l 11 s sempdrvi- 

 reiis, " e v e r - 

 green crab ap- 

 ple." Pyrus 

 angustifolia is 

 thus character- 

 ized by Torrey 

 and Gray in 

 1848, and the 

 description i s 

 excellent: 

 Leaves lan- 

 ceolate-oblong, 

 often acute at 

 base, dentate- 

 serrate or al- 

 m o s t entire, 

 glabrous, shin- 

 ing above." 



It is said 

 that the styles 

 in Pyrus angus- 

 tifolia are dis- 

 tinct, while 

 they are united 



in P. coronaria, but this character does not hold. The 

 coherence of the styles in all these wild crabs, as in 

 the apple itself, is very variable, and it seems to me to 

 be entirely unreliable as a distinguishing mark. 



The disposition which I have made of the wild crabs 

 is not devoid of difficulties. The species are peculiarly 

 difficult to study because of the scanty and unsatisfac- 

 tory material in the herbaria,* and no one appears to 

 have given them any protracted attention. But if the 

 following arrangement does not remove all difficulties, 

 it certainly lessens them. 



Pyrus coronaria and P. angustifolia are essentially 

 smooth species, and the young wood is dense and hard. 

 The young leaves and shoots are sometimes thinly hairy, 

 but they soon become smooth. The two western species 

 which I have described are essentially pubescent spe- 

 cies, and the young growth is thicker and softer. The 



Fig. 5. 



Mature Leaf of Pyrus 

 soulardi. 



pubescence is floccose or woolly, and persists upon the 

 under surface of the leaves throughout the season. Our 

 native crabs east of the Rocky Mountains may be char- 

 acterized for the present as follows : 



Pyrus coronaria, Linnccus. (Figs, i, 2, 3.) Leaves 

 short-ovate to triangular-ovate, sharply cut-serrate and 

 often 3-lobed, thin and hard, smooth, on long and slender 

 but stiff and hard smooth petioles ; flowers large (over 

 an inch across), on long (i>^ to 2 inches) and slender 

 stiff smooth or very nearly smooth pedicels, the calyx 

 smooth, or very nearly so, on the outside. A small, 

 slow-growing and spreading thorny tree, growing in 

 glades from New York to Michigan and southwards, 

 probably to Georgia. It is in cultivation as an orna' 

 mental plant ( ' ' Pyrus coronaria odorata "), but it appears 

 never to have been grown for its fruit. 



Pyrus angustifolia, Alton. Leaves lanceolate-ob- 

 long to elliptic, small, varying from almost entire in the 

 inflorescence to bluntly and mostly sparsely dentate- 

 serrate, obtuse or bluntish (only rarely half-acute), stiff 

 and firm and polished above as if half-evergeen, on 

 short (usually an inch or less) and hard, smooth or near- 

 ly smooth petioles ; flowers habitually smaller than in 

 the last, on very slender but shorter, smooth pedicels, 

 the calyx smooth, or essentially so, on the outside. A 

 small, hard-wooded tree, growing from Pennsylvania to 

 Tennessee (and southern Illinois ? ) and Florida. Dr. 

 Gattinger, of Nashville, Tenn., writes me that the spe- 

 cies is "confined to 

 the siliceous sub- 

 carboniferous form- 

 ation, and I have 

 never seen it on the 

 Silurian limestones 

 around Nashville." 



Pyrus Soulardi, 

 new species. (Figs. 4, 

 5. 6.) 



Leaves round- 



FiG. 6. Leaves of Pyrus Soulardi. 



* In Ibis study, besides a good suite of specimens in my own col- 

 lection, I bave bad for examination the collections from the Gray 

 Herbarium, Cambridge; Torrey Herbarium, Columbia College 

 and Department of Agriculture Herbarium. 



ovate to elliptic-ovate, either rounded or tapering at the 

 base, large, bluntly and closely serrate or dentate-serrate 

 when young, irregularly crenate-dentate at maturity, 



