VJO SYSTEMATIC f'oMOf.oCY 



of course is no classification at all. Somct lines thoy are divided 

 in accordance Avith season and sha])e as in .1. .1. Thomas's Amcri- 

 Ciin Fruit CuKurist. Lucas, the (Jcrnian, whose classification of 

 the apple is one of the hest, tried to classify pears hy both a 

 natural and an artificial system. In the natural system he made 

 fifteen groups to which he gives names and fairly full descrip- 

 tions. In his artificial system he jrroups the varieties he knows 

 in accordance with season, form, color, and as to whether the 

 calyx is open or closed. Thus arranged his varieties fall into 

 108 groups. Waugh has a similar classification in which va- 

 rieties are classified as to form, color, and season. In attempts 

 to classify pears, the same difficulties mentioned under apples 

 are found, which are even more marked, and the author has had 

 to content himself w^th a simple key for finding the names of 

 pears. 



The Quince 



The quince is a pome-fruit which all modem botanists put in 

 the Genus C\ydonia, so closely related to Pyrus that formerly 

 the two were sometimes united, the quince under the name 

 P. Cydonia. There are, however, marked differences between 

 the quince and the apple and pear, fruits which now constitute 

 Pyrus, as Avill be seen in a comparison to be made when the 

 botanical characters of species have ])een given. 



174. Botanical characters of the quince. — Cydonia contains 

 only the species now to be described, to w^hich belong all of the 

 true, as distinguished from the Japanese quinces. 



Cydonin ohlonga, Mill. Small trees or shrubs 15-20 feet in height, with 

 slender unarmed branches. Leaves alternate, oblong-oval, entire, pubescent 

 beneath, petioled, stipulate, 2-4 inches long. Flowers white or tinged with 

 pink, large, 2 inches in diameter, showy, terminal on short leafy branchlets; 

 petals 5; stamens numerous; styles 5, free; ovary with 5 cells each con- 

 taining many seeds. Fruit large, round or pear-shaped, yellow, woolly, 

 with hard yellow flesh which becomes pink after cooking. 



175. The quince distinguished from the apple, pear, and 

 Japanese quince. — The quince differs from the apple and pear 

 in both tree and fruit sufficiently to put it in a separate genus. 

 The differences in the fruits are those which the pomologists 

 would account most noteworthy. Thus, the pomes of Cydonia 



