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used domestically in making jellies and preserves but are not in very 
general use. All the other Crab-apples are only valuable for the beauty 
of their flowers and fruits in the decoration of gardens. The Ameri- 
can Crab-apples bloom later than the Old World species, and their 
flowers do not open until the leaves are well grown. The flowers are 
more or less deeply tinged with pink or rose color and are exceedingly 
fragrant. The fruits of the eastern species are depressed-globose, 
light green, sometimes turning pale yellow when fully ripe, lustrous, 
covered with a waxy exudation, and more fragrant than the fruit of 
other Apple-trees. The fruit falls without having become soft, and 
remains on the ground a long time without losing its shape. The fruit 
of the northwestern species {Ml fiisca) is oblong, not more than three- 
quarters of an inch in length, yellow-green or yellow often flushed 
with red, or occasionally entirely red. The flesh of this little apple 
is thin and dry. 
The American Crab-apples are good plants for wood borders and for- 
est glades, and can be used to advantage with the Flowering Dogwood 
{Cornus jlorida), the different Shad Bushes {Amelanchier), and some of 
the American Hawthorns to enliven forest parks and country roadsides. 
American Crab-apples, however, are still little known or appreciated 
by American gardeners, and only one of them, the so-called Bechtel 
Crab, a double-flowered form of M. ioensis of the Mississippi Valley, 
is found in American nurseries. The flowers of this tree resemble 
small double pink roses and attract more attention than almost any 
other plant in the Arboretum. Among the handsomest of the species 
of eastern Asia as flowering plants are: — 
Malus floribunda is probably the best known and the most gener- 
ally cultivated Crab-apple in this part of the country. When growm 
naturally it is a broad, tall, round-topped bush, rather than a tree, 
with wide-spreading branches. The flowers as they open are red and, 
passing through different shades of rose color, become almost white 
before the petals fall. The fruit is not much larger han a pea. 
This plant is one of the most satisfactory of all flowering shrubs which 
can be grown in this climate for it has never yet been injured by 
cold, heat, or drought, and never fails to produce its flowers every 
spring. On some of these plants the fruit drops in early autumn, 
and on other seedling plants raised in the Arboretum it remains on 
the branches until early spring and furnishes birds with great sup- 
plies of winter food, and for the benefit of the birds plants of this 
variety should be selected. There are a number of these plants close 
to the Administration Building where during the winter they are much 
frequented by pheasants who find shelter in a neighboring Pine grove. 
A hybrid of Malus fiorihunda, and one of the hybrid forms of M. 
baccata appeared spontaneously in the Arboretum, and has been called 
Malus Arnoldiana; it has the low-branched habit of M. floribunda but 
the flowers and fruits are more than a third larger. This is one of 
the handsomest of all Crab-apples. 
