230 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



3. Pyrus Lindleyi Rehder, nom. n. 



Pyrus sinensis Lindley in Trans. Hort. Soc. London, VI. 396 (1826), non 

 Poiret; in Bot. Reg. XV. t. 1248 (1829). 



Lindley's Pyrus sinensis seems to have been much misunderstood, 

 and the name has been applied to all Chinese pears characterized by 

 setosely serrate leaves. Lindley's description, however, as well as 

 his type specimen, of which I have a good photograph before me, show 

 that the leaves of his species have short, rather small and not at all 

 acuminate teeth. He certainly would have mentioned such a striking 

 character as the setose teeth in his description, but in the description 

 he simply says " foliis .... serratis " and in his comparison with Pyrus 

 communis he does not mention the serration at all, which tends to show 

 that he did not perceive much difference between the serration of 

 Pyrus communis and that of his new species. The true P. sinensis 

 of Lindley seems to have been lost to cultivation in Europe and in 

 this country, for all the plants and specimens I have seen belong to 

 species with setosely serrate leaves, and Pyrus Lindleyi rests at present 

 only on Lindley's description and his type specimen. 



In the P. sinensis of most authors three species seem to have been 

 included, two of them with persistent calyx and one with deciduous 

 calyx. In P. Lindleyi the calyx is persistent according to Lindley's 

 description in the Botanical Register and according to the description, 

 probably by the secretary of the society, in the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society where only the fruit is fully described and 

 nothing said about the leaves and the tree itself, with a note that " it 

 has been named by Mr. Lindley Pyrus sinensis." 



In Lindley's type specimen the leaves of the shoots are ovate, 

 abruptly acuminate and rounded at the base, and those of the short 

 branchlets mostly subcordate; all are closely serrate, with small 

 appressed, acute teeth, or those of the short branchlets nearly cren- 

 ately serrate. As much as can be judged from the photograph they 

 appear to be quite glabrous and about 8 or 10 cm. long. 



Pyrus Lindleyi is possibly not a wild species, but a cultivated form. 

 At present, however, with our incomplete knowledge of the Chinese 

 pears, it seems best to treat it as a species. Pyrus communis Loureiro 

 {Fl. Cochin. 321. 1790) may belong here as a synonym, as the author 

 describes the leaves as "subintegerrima." 



The name Pyrus sinensis of Lindley cannot be maintained for this 

 species on account of the older P. sinensis (Thouin) Poiret (Encycl. 

 Meth. Suppl. IV. 452. 1816). Even though the latter species is now 



