CTTAPTEK XTT 



THE POME-FRUITS 



The older botanists placed the apple, pear, quince, medlar, 

 and jiine])erry in one g:eniis, P\tiis. Most botanists now, how- 

 ever, put tliese several fruits in distinct prenera somewhat in 

 accordance with their common names. There is still, however, 

 P'eat diversity of opinion as to what plants should be placed in 

 Pyrus, particularly as to whether the apple and pear should be 

 in one or two g:enera. Both are here kept in Pyrus under the 

 belief that the differences are not sufficiently marked to justify 

 placing them farther apart than in two sections of one genus. 

 The quince belongs to Cydonia ; the medlar to Mespilus ; the 

 loquat to Eriobotrya ; and the juneberry to Amelanchier. 



154. The genus Pyrus. — Pyrus is the Latin name of the pear- 

 tree. This genus of many diverse plants contains from fifty to 

 sixty species widely scattered throughout the north temperate 

 zone, most of them in south-central and eastern Asia. In North 

 America the genus is represented by five species, while eight or 

 nine are wild in Europe. 



Woody plants, trees or shrubs, with smooth or scaly bark. Leaves simple, 

 or sometimes lobed, alternate, usually serrate, deciduous with deciduous 

 stipules which are free from the petiole. Flowers perfect, regular, borne 

 in compound terminal cymes; torus urn-shaped, adnate to the ovary and 

 inclosing it with thick succulent flesh at maturity; calyx-lobes 5, acuminate 

 and reflexed, persistent in some and deciduous in other species; petals 5, 

 white, pink or red, inserted on the thickened border of the disk; stamens 

 15-20, in three rows; styles 2-5, free or united below; carpels 2-5, inferior, 

 cro%vned by the styles, usually 2-seeded. Fruit an ovoid, oblate, or pyriform 

 pome; seeds 2 in each cell, brown or brownish, lustrous, mucilaginous on 

 the outer surface. 



155. The apple distinguished from the pear. — In the orchard 

 or in the market the apple and pear are easily distinguished in 

 tree or fruit, but there are outlying species and varieties so 



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