ORNAMENTAL CRAB APPLES

Evening Star, Issue 22382, 4 July 1936, Page 23

ORNAMENTAL CRAB APPLES

DUAL PURPOSE TREES Why they should be called crabs and why they are to be looked for m any shrub list under the botanical label ot Pyrus, which also includes the mountain ashes, the white beams, and the pears proper, as well as the crab apples that are now described as Mains something or other to distinguish them from their close cousins, are matters that need not concern the ordinary gardener (writes “ Cynthia,” in the ‘Marlborough Express’). It is sum-

cient for him to know that within their ranks arc to be found some of the most beautiful of ornamental trees, well suited to every garden, both large and small, as lovely in fruit as they are in blossom, and as vigorous in growth and accommodating in their way as they are sound in constitution and trustworthy in handiness. Though it has its merits as a flowering tree, the common crab, known as Pyrus Malus, is mostly used as a “ stock ” tree by the nurserymen to bud or graft the better and new_ types that have come to hand from Asia and North America during more recent times.

The first of the Oriental species to make its appearance was the Chinese crab, Mains Spectabilis, which came from Canton about the same time as the first camellias, the' Moutan paeony, and the Yulan magnolia. The Siberian crab (M, baoenta) followed a year or two later,_ while earlier than either came M. Prunifolia, which by some authorities is considered a hybrid. Whatever its pedigree, it is a handsome tree. In those varieties named John Doivnie, Dartmouth, and Transparent, that are probably hybrids between these two species and the ordinary apples, we have the best-known members of the race. The virtues of the first are known to most, and where there is only room for one John Downie should be chosen, for its fruits of golden yellow washed with scarlet and crimson are as highly ornamental as they are useful for jelly making. _ For luxuriance of blossom in the spring there are no trees, with the exception of the cherries, to surpass several of the Japanese crabs, which are the quintessence of loveliness when their slender arching shoots are a shower of pinkish blossoms and still pinker buds.