MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
149 
Dr. Schroeder of Moscow, Russia, told me of having had good results with 
Pyrus prunifolia as a stock but outside of Moscow I heard only of P. baccata. 
The following article “Apple Seedlings for Stocks” was translated from 
Russian in the same manner as the notes from Regel’s Russian Dendrology. 
It is from a work on “Commercial Horticulture” by Alexander Kondratevitch 
Grell (Moscow, 1897) p. 65: 
APPLE SEEDLINGS FOR STOCKS. 
Among the seedlings which are used for stocks, I give the preference above 
all to the Siberian “berry apple” (crab). There are two varieties -of this spe- 
cies which are both used for the propagation of seedlings, viz., Pyrus baccata 
var. cerasiformis aurea and Pyrus baccata var. cerasiformis rubra. 
The Siberian apple tree which is known in gardens under the erroneous 
name “Chinese apple tree” grows wild in southwest Siberia and northeast 
China, bears small, round fruits, which are golden yellow in the first named 
variety and reddish in the second named variety. To this I count also a third 
species, useful in the highest degree but as yet but little distributed among 
us, viz., Pyrus prunifolia var. macrocar pa. Both of these species and their 
varieties are very pretty small trees which are laden every year with innumer- 
able yellow or red fruits and give an extremely heavy crop of small seeds. 
The seedlings of the Siberian apple do not form so thick stems as those of 
the cultivated apple. When one grafts any desired garden variety on a Siber- 
ian crab, the stem below the point of union always remains thinner than, 
above the same, hence an outgrowth arises at that place. When, on the con- 
trary, the Siberian crab is grafted on a garden variety, the reverse condition 
arises, i. e., the stem beneath the point of union becomes thicker than that 
above. 
The local peasant nurserymen who are familiar with these characteristics,, 
grow the Siberian crab for sale for ‘stocks on forest or garden varieties*. The 
Siberian crabs propagated in this manner grow faster than those grown from 
seed. Aside from the fact that the varieties grafted on a Siberian crab 
form neither too thick a stem nor a too thickly branched top, I give to the 
Siberian crab seedling above all the preference, and for two reasons: (1) 
Varieties grafted or budded on the Siberian crab bear much more and earlier 
fruit and (2) suffer much less from frosts. In a severe winter in the Borokow 
district in the Kaluga province all varieties of the apples were killed with the 
exception of a few' which had been grafted on Pyrus prunifolia macro- 
carpa. Only these few escaped without injury. Since that time this 
species has been known only as the “unconquerable” in the Borokow 
district and in W'ereja. Hence it is not at all necessary to search; 
for other wildings for stocks since there are present for us in 
Pyrus prunifolia macrocarpa characteristics of such immense value. Some say 
that varieties grafted on the Siberian crab are not long lived, but this asser- 
tion is wholly without foundation since a tree of Pyrus baccata genuina planted 
by me in Moscow in 1859 is still growing and bearing fruit, and at M. F. 
Essen’s is found one that has already reached its fiftieth year. Next after the 
Siberian crab in hardiness and longevity comes the forest apple wilding, and 
after that come the seedlings of garden varieties. 
* By this is meant Pyrus Malus which grows wild in parts of Russia. 
