COMPLIMENTARY 
NEW SERIES VOL. X 
NO. 4 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 21. 1924 
Crabapples. With the exception of Prunus, including the Cherries 
and Plums, Malus, the generic term of the Apples, is the most widely 
distributed of the arborescent genera of the Rose Family which extends 
across the northern hemisphere. Many of these trees will be in bloom 
this week. The Arboretum collection is a large one and much atten- 
tion has been paid to it during the last forty years. The flowers of 
these trees make one of the principal spectacular displays of the year 
in the Arboretum, and only that made by the Lilacs attracts a larger 
number of visitors. The only .drawback to these plants is their ten- 
dency to hybridize. Most of the plants are generally supposed to be 
species, and none of the species raised from seeds gathered from 
plants in a large collection like that in the Arboretum resemble their 
parents, although it is impossible to determine whether the change in 
the seedlings is due to an earlier cross in the Arboretum plant or to 
the influence of one of its Arboretum neighbors. The collection here 
is one of the largest in cultivation, but only five plants have been seen 
growing with every evidence of species as seeds collected from these 
wild plants do not differ from those of their parents. These five wild 
plants in the collection are Malus haccata from eastern Siberia, its 
variety mandshurica from Manchuria, Korea and northern Japan, M. 
Sargentii and M. Sieboldii var. arborescens from Japan, and M. pruni- 
folia var. rinki, and M. theifera from western China. 
Malus baccata, which is one of the earliest Crabapples to flower, is 
a common large wide-spreading tree with white flowers and small 
green or reddish fruit, and although perfectly hardy is one of the least 
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