introduced into cultivation under varietal names. These are _Pyrus
Soulardii_, a species bearing the name of J. G. Soulard, Illinois
horticulturist. These crab-apples are probably natural hybrids between
_Pyrus Malus_ and the prairie crab, _P. ioensis_. Had there been no
European apple to be introduced by colonists, it is probable that
improved forms would have been evolved from the native species. In
that event, North American pomology would have had a very different
character.

There remains a very different class of apple-trees, grown only for
ornament and usually known as "flowering apples." They are mostly
native in China and Japan. They are small trees, or even almost
bushes, with profuse handsome flowers and some of them with very
ornamental little fruits. They have come to this country largely from
Japan where they are grown for decoration, as the cherries of Japan
are grown not for fruit but for their flowers, being of very different
species from the cherries of Europe and America. The common apple
itself yields varieties grown only for ornament, as one with
variegated leaves, one with double flowers, and one with drooping
branches. These are known mostly in Europe; but these forms do not
compare in interest with the handsome species of the Far East.

All these differing species of the apple-tree multiply the interest
and hold the attention in many countries. They make the apple-tree
group one of the most widespread and adaptable of temperate-region
trees. It will be seen that there are three families of them,--the
Eurasian family, from which come the pomological apples; the North
American family, which has yielded little cultivated material; the
East-Asian family, abundant in highly ornamental kinds. There are no
apple-trees native in the southern hemisphere.

The apple-tree, taken in its general sense, has a broad meaning. What
may be accomplished by breeding and hybridizing is beyond
imagination.

XI

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE

Every seedling of the pomological apples is a new variety. Some of
these seedlings are so good that they are named and introduced into
cultivation. They are grafted on other stocks, and become part of the
great inheritance of desirable apples.

It is to be expected that in the long processes of time in many
countries the number of varieties will accumulate to high numbers. No
one knows all the kinds that have been named and propagated, but they
run into many thousands