Mespilus Loddigesiana, Spach, Hist. Nat. Veg. vol. ii. (1834), p. o4. 
M. stipulacea, Desf. ex Spach lc. M. mexicana, Koch, Dendrol. vol. i. 
(1869) p. 182, ex parte.—O. Srapr. 
The Thorn here figured is one of the forms of the 
Mexican Hawthorn or Tejocote, the earliest account 
of which we owe to Hernandez, who was resident in 
Mexico between 1571 and 1577, and has described it as 
the Texocotl or Rock Apple. The Tejocote is one of the 
few members of the genus Crataegus which inhabit the 
Mexican tableland, where it is appreciated, more especially 
by the Indian inhabitants, on account of its fruits, which 
are used as the basis.of a national conserve. From a 
drawing of the Tejocote made in the field by the 
travellers Sessé and Mociiio about the end of the 
XVIIIth Century, the species was described by De Can- 
dolle in 1825 as Crataegus mexicana. In the meantime, 
however, the travellers Humboldt and Bonpland, who 
had also met with the Tejocote near the mines of Moran 
in what is now the State of Hidalgo, in the beginning of 
the XIXth Century, had published a description in 1823 
under the name Mespilus pubescens. From the synonyms 
cited by Dr. Stapf it will be seen that the generic 
position postulated for this tree by these distinguished 
travellers has not found general favour, and there is no 
room for doubt that the view of De Candolle is the pre- 
ferable one. An almost more serious difficulty has 
arisen, however, as to its specific limitation. This has 
been caused by the excessive degree of variation dis- 
played not merely in different individual trees but even, 
at times, in the same individual. It is to this circum- 
stance that the number of trivial epithets used as specific 
names, which are enumerated in the synonymy, must be 
attributed. The whole question has recently been very 
fully dealt with by Dr. Stapf in the Kew Bulletin for 
the present year, and here it is sufficient to repeat that 
the plant from which the material for our plate has been 
derived is only a form, though a rather distinct and 
striking one, of the Tejocote. The Species appears to 
have been introduced to cultivation in England by the 
eighth Lord Napier, through his friend Mr. A. B. Lambert, 
about 1824. The example at Kew, which is a small tree 
