CXV.— THE CRAB-APPLE. 
Pyrus Malus Linne. 
T he second Sub-Family of the Rosacea is the Pomoidea^ comprising the genus 
Pyrus and such closely related series as the Quinces {Cydonia)^ Medlars 
(^Mespilus), and Hawthorns {Cratagus). They are all woody plants, with stipulate 
leaves ; but their most characteristic part is the gynaeceum. From two to five 
carpels — or very rarely a solitary carpel — are progressively enclosed and united by 
the enlarging receptacular tube into the practically syncarpous and inferior fleshy 
fruit known as a/>owe, surmounted by the withered but persistent calyx, the carpels 
themselves constituting the hard central “ core.” 
Though the Apple is now cultivated at the Cape, in Australia, and in New 
Zealand, the genus Pyrus in a wild state is confined to the Temperate and colder parts 
of the Northern Hemisphere ; and, among fruit trees, the Apple is, perhaps, more 
characteristic of the North Temperate Zone than is any other. It cannot be grown 
within the Tropics or north of the Arctic Circle ; but rejoices in the dry climate and 
sunny summers of Canada, the United States, and Australasia even more than in its 
native Old World home. The only truly indigenous British tree with a coloured 
corolla, the Crab-apple in May is a peculiar glory of our latitudes. The late Dr. 
Alfred Russel Wallace, writing of Tropical scenery, said : — “ 1 have never seen 
anything more glorious than an old crab-tree in full blossom.” The fruit, at the 
same time, as the fruit par excellence of the Teutonic area, has appropriated the 
name Apple which was once a common Germanic term for fruit of any kind, from 
Bramble-apples and Thorn-apples to Love-apples and Pine-apples. 
The genus Pyrus is characterised by its urceolate receptacular tube, its two to 
five carpels distinct from one another, though entirely imbedded in the receptacle, 
with a cartilaginous texture, and containing one, or more usually two, seeds each. 
Its species fall into two series or sub-genera, at least so far as the British representatives 
of the genus are concerned, which differ mainly in bearing large or small fruits, the 
latter series, which includes the Rowan and the White Beam, being sometimes 
separated as the genus Sorbus. The two well-known species of Pyrus, in the restricted 
sense as the name of the sub-genus with large fruits, viz. the Pear (P. communis LinnQ 
and the Apple (P. Malus Linn6), differ mainly in the partial union of the styles in 
the latter, and more especially in the forms of their fruits, the Pear having the core 
near its apex, and the apex of the fruit-stalk so enlarged as to make the fruit 
turbinate, shaped, that is, like a peg-top, while the Apple is more globular and is 
umbilicate, or hollowed, at the insertion of the stalk. 
Whilst in our orchards the Apple-trees are very generally blown into various 
sloping directions of growth, their low stems commonly branch into three main 
boughs which spring from the trunk at angles of from 90° to I20°, thus giving a 
spreading habit to the tree. The subsequent branches and twigs diverge at angles 
