Linnaeus included the quince; Malus is Latin for
the apple-tree. Together the names represent genus and species,--the
malus Pyrus.

These statements are easy enough to make, but it is impossible to
demonstrate whether the common pomological apples are derived from one
original species or from two or more. Many technical botanical names
have been given in the group, but we need not pause with them here. It
is enough for our purpose to know that the natural-history of the
apple, as of anything else that runs to time immemorial, passes at
the end into obscurity. We seem never to reach the ultimate origins or
to find an end to our quests.

There are other apples than the common pomological orchard types.
There are the crabs. In general usage, the word "crab" designates an
apple that is small, sour and crabbed. Such apples are wildings or
seedlings. They are merely depreciated forms of _Pyrus Malus_, and
probably much like the first apples known to man. What are known to
horticulturists as crab-apples, however, are other species of Pyrus,
of different character and origin. We need not pause with the
discussion of them, except to say that the commonest kinds are the
little long-stemmed fruits of _Pyrus baccata_ (berry Pyrus), native in
eastern Europe and Siberia. These are the "Siberian crabs." The leaves
and twigs are smooth, and the calyx falls away from the fruit, leaving
a bare blossom end. These little hard handsome fruits are used in the
making of conserves. Certain larger crab-apples, in which the blossom
end is not clean or bare, as the Transcendent and Hyslop, are probably
hybrids between the true crabs and the common apple; this class
provides the main crab-apples of the markets.

When the settlers came to the country west and south of New England,
they found another kind of crab-apples in the woods, truly native. The
fruits were hard and sour, but they could be buried to ripen. The
trees are much like a thorn-apple,--low, spreading, twiggy, thorny;
but the pink-white large fragrant flowers are very different. The wild
crab-apple was called _Pyrus coronaria_ by Linnaeus, the "garland
Pyrus." On the prairies is another species, _Pyrus ioensis_; it yields
a charming double-flowered form, "Bechtel's crab." In the South are
other species. In fact, _P. coronaria_ itself may not be a single
species. These wild crabs run into many forms. In the northern
Mississippi and prairie country are native apples good enough to be