Note 39 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

May the 4th. Crab-trees are a species of wild apple trees, which grow in the woods and glades, but especially on little hillocks, near rivers39. In New Jersey the tree is rather scarce; but in Pensylvania it is plentiful. Some people had planted a single tree of this kind near their farms, on account of the fine smells which its flowers afford. It had begun to open some of its flowers about a day or two ago; however, most of them were not yet open. They are exactly like the blossoms of the common apple-trees, except that the colour is a little more reddish in the Crab-trees; though some kinds of the cultivated trees have flowers which are very near as red: but the smell distinguishes them plainly; for the wild trees have a very pleasant smell, somewhat like the rasp-berry. The apples, or crabs, are small, sour, and unfit for any thing but to make vinegar of. They ly under the trees all the winter, and acquire a yellow colour. They seldom begin to rot before spring comes on.