Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. Ill 
NO. 5 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 28, 1917 
Crab-apples. These plants for the decoration of northern gardens 
are of first-rate importance, and from its early days much attention 
has been paid at the Arboretum to the collection and study of the 
different species, hybrids and varieties. The flowering of the Crab- 
apples is one of the important Arboretum events and, although the 
season is ten or twelve days late, some of the Asiatic species are 
already in bloom and during three or four weeks Apple blossoms can 
be seen here. 
From the Crab-apple of southeastern Europe and western and central 
Asia {Malus pumila) most of the Apples of our orchards have been 
developed, although in some of these the blood of the Crab of northern 
and central Europe {Malus sylvestris) can be traced. The Paradise 
Apple is a very dwarf form of Malus pumila used by nurserymen as 
a stock for dwarf pomological varieties. The first of the Crab-apples 
of eastern Asia known to Europeans {Malus haccata) was first culti- 
vated in Europe one hundred and thirty years ago. It is a native of 
eastern Siberia, and is a tall, narrow tree with large white flowers 
appearing with the leaves, and fruit the size of a large pea. The 
Siberian Crab, as it is popularly called, is a handsome, very hardy 
plant; its great value, however, is that, crossed with the cultivated 
Apple-tree, it has given rise to a race of Apples like the Hyslop and 
the Transcendent Crabs which can be grown in regions too cold for 
the successful cultivation of the ordinary Apple. These hybrids are 
known as Siberian Crabs, and many named varieties can now be 
found in nurseries in the extreme northern part of the country. They 
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