COMPLIMENTARY 
NEW SERIES VOL. V 
NO. 4 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. _ MAY 16, 1919 
Asiatic Crabapples. The flowering of these trees makes one of the 
principal spectacular displays of the year in the Arboretum; and of 
these displays only that made by the Lilacs attracts a larger number 
of visitors. Most of the plants will be in flower when this Bulletin 
reaches its Boston readers who can see these trees and shrubs on the 
left-hand side of the Forest Hills Road entering by the Forest Hills 
gate, and in a larger and more complete collection at the eastern base 
of Peter’s Hill. Among these Crabapples are a number of small trees 
which should find a place in every northern garden for few trees which 
are hardy in New England are more beautiful when covered in May 
with their white, pink or rose-colored flowers, or in autumn when the 
branches are loaded with their brilliant red, scarlet or yellow fruits. 
Malus baccata mandshimca is the earliest of these Crabapples to 
open its flower-buds in the Arboretum. A native of Manchuria, Korea 
and northern Japan, it is the eastern form of the better known Malus 
baccata, the Siberian Crabapple, which reached Europe more than a 
century ago and for a long time was one of only two Asiatic Crabapples 
known in western gardens. The Manchurian form as it grows in the 
Arboretum is a tree twelve or fifteen feet tall and broad; the flowers, 
which are produced in profusion, are pure white, rather more than an 
inch across, and more fragrant than those of any other Asiatic Crab- 
apple. The fruit is round, yellow or red, and not larger than a large 
pea. A form of this tree (var. Jackii) brought from Korea by Mr. Jack 
in 1905 is distinguished by its large, dark scarlet fruit. The Manchurian 
Crabapple, which is still rare in this country, for the fragrance of the 
flowers alone should find a place in all collections. 
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