164 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Asiatic Crab Apples and Other Plants at the Arnold Arboretum 
About the second week in May the Crabapples from 
eastern Asia will be the most conspicuous flowering 
plants in the Arboretum. The old collection is on the 
left-hand side of the Forest Hills Road. There is a 
larger collection containing a large number of varieties 
at the eastern base of Peter’s Hill, and the species found 
by Wilson in western China have also been planted on 
the southern slope of Russey Hill, just below the Over¬ 
look. The best known of the Asiatic Crabapples in gar¬ 
dens is called Malus floribunda. It is shrubby rather 
than treelike in habit and makes a broad, round-topped 
bush sometimes twenty-five feet tall and broad. This 
plant blooms profusely every year and is most beautiful 
when the flowers begin to open for they open gradually 
and in succession, and the contrast of the white flowers 
with the bright rose-colored flower-buds greatly adds to 
the beauty of both. The fruit is not much larger than 
a pea, and adds little to the ornamental value of this 
plant. The origin of Malus floribunda is obscure. Al¬ 
though first sent to Europe from Japan more than sixty 
years ago, it is not a native of Japan and was probably 
carried there from China with many other plants found 
in Japanese gardens and long believed by European tra¬ 
vellers to be native to the Island Empire. By some bot¬ 
anists it is thought to be a hybrid, and although its seed¬ 
lings show some variation this hypothesis has not yet 
been clearly proved. The whole question of the origin 
and proper limitation of the species of Asiatic Crab¬ 
apples is greatly complicated by the fact that all apples 
hybridize so freely that plants raised from seed gathered 
from plants in a large collection like the one in the Ar¬ 
boretum rarely resemble the parent plant. This ten¬ 
dency to natural hybridization among the apples, while 
it makes endless trouble for the systematic botanist, has 
advantages for the gardener, as has already been seen in 
the Arboretum where one of the most beautiful of all 
flowering apples, now called Malm Arnoldiana, appeared 
a few years ago among seedlings of M. floribunda. This 
plant is also shrubby in habit, with flowers more than 
one-half larger than those of M. floribunda and much 
larger fruits. It is probably a hybrid with some of the 
large-flowered hybrids of the Siberian Malus baccata. 
Near the Administration Building are large seedling 
plants raised from M. floribunda which are peculiar in 
their persistent fruit which remains in good condition on 
the branches until spring and supplies the birds with an 
abundant supply of winter food. Another supposed 
hybrid between two species of eastern Siberia, some¬ 
times called Malus cerasifera, is common in the Arbore¬ 
tum in various forms. With plenty of space this grows 
into a large, wide-spreading tree. The pure white 
flowers are perhaps larger than those of any of the other 
Crabapples. The fruit on different plants varies in 
color and greatly in size and shape, on some trees retain¬ 
ing and on others losing the calyx. Selected forms of 
this tree can only be obtained by grafts. Malus Ilall- 
iana, usually known as the Parkman Crab, was found in 
Japanese gardens by Dr. Hall and sent to the United 
States in 1861 in the first consignment of plants to reach 
the United States direct from Japan, and was first culti¬ 
vated by Francis Parkman, the historian, in his garden on 
the shores of Jamaica Pond, now in the Boston Park Sys¬ 
tem. This is a treelike shrub with erect and spreading 
stems and is smaller than Malus floribunda, differing from 
it in its darker bark, thicker leaves deeply tinged with 
bronze color when they untold, and semidouble, bright 
rose-colored flowers drooping on long slender stems, and 
in its smaller fruit which is not larger than a small pea. 
Some persons consider this the most beautiful of the 
Crabapples, and certainly the color of the 1 lowers is un¬ 
like that of any of the others. The origin of this plant 
was unknown till Wilson found it growing in western 
China near the borders of Tibet. Another Chinese Crab, 
Malus spectabilis, is usually found in gardens only in the 
form with double or semidouble flowers. It is a tree 
with erect, slightly spreading stems which form a vase- 
tike bead, and in some of its forms is an attractive and 
usef ul plant. Malus Scheideckeri, which is no doubt a 
hybrid although ot uncertain origin, is a small tree of py¬ 
ramidal habit which usually produces its comparatively 
small pink flowers in such prolusion that it should find 
a place in every collection oi these plants. Malus (Pg- 
rus) toringo was first used as a name for a Japanese 
Crabapple, and there are two or three Japanese forms in 
the collection here under that name. in 1882 the Ar¬ 
boretum received from Dr. Bretschneider, then at Pekin, 
seeds of a Crabapple which has been growing here ever 
since and has been considered a form of the Japanese M. 
jtormgo from which, however, it differs in its much smal¬ 
ler and later flowers and smaller fruits 
which on some individuals are red and on 
others yellow. Although one of the least showy of the 
Crabapples, this Chinese tree is valuable as it flowers 
after the others have passed. Two other Japanese 
species are well represented in the collection from seeds 
collected by Professor Sargent in Japan in 1892, Malus 
zumi and M. Sargentii; the former is a common tree on 
the mountains of central Japan and the latter is an in¬ 
habitant of the borders of salt marshes in Hokkaido. 
The dwarf habit of this species makes it a good subject 
for small gardens. The rather small flowers are pro¬ 
duced in great abundance, and the dark red fruits remain 
on the branches until growth begins the following 
spring. Malus baccata is a common tree in eastern Si¬ 
beria, and was one of the first of these plants introduced 
into Europe. It has no doubt played an important part 
in the introduction of many hybrid forms, including the 
so-called Siberian Crabs, like the “Transcendent” and 
many other well known varieties. These are supposed 
hybrids between the common apple and Malus baccata; 
among them are some of the most beautiful flowering 
plants in the whole Apple Group. The flowers are fol¬ 
lowed by brilliant fruits valuable in cooking and for pre¬ 
serves. The Siberian Crabs are hardier than any of the 
domestic Apples and have therefore been found valuable 
in some of the colder parts of Canada and the United 
States where other Apples cannot be grown. In culti¬ 
vation Malus baccata is a tall narrow tree with small 
