220 0\ CKRTAIX SMAr.I.-FKUITF.U PEAKS. 



tlie arcliODological evidence that might be brought forward in its 

 8iij)port. 



We have, then, to consider three forms very nearly alike 

 occurring in Persia, Central and Western France, and in one of our 

 own south-western counties, and we have to consider the probabi- 

 lities of a migration or transportation from one country to the others, 

 and the means whereby it may have been cfFccted. 



And first of the Plymouth form. Of this I have seen the type speci- 

 mens in the Herbarium of the British Museum. The specimens are 

 good, and show a sterile shoot with its foliage, a flowering-shoot, and 

 others bearing fruits. In addition I have, of course, consulted what 

 Dr. Boswell-Syme and Mr. Briggs have already published (loc. cit.) 

 On the harren branch tlie shoots terminate in spines, which are 

 very slender, purplish, and glabrescent. The leaves measure about 

 1-| by 1 inch, and are supported on a setose stalk of about J inch in 

 length. The blade of the leaf is ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at 

 base, crenulate-dentate, glabrescent on the surface generally, but 

 thinly and shortly setose along the midrib on the upper surface and 

 along the margins. The stipules are caducous, linear-setaceous, about 

 a third shorter than the petioles. The leaf-buds are short, oblong, 

 obtuse, and glabrous. On the flowering-shoot the leaves are of a more 

 oblong obtuse form, shortly and abruptly deltoid-acuminate at the 

 apex and suhcordate at the base. The flowers are numerous, 

 arranged in an elongate corymb, the rachis of which, as observed 

 by Dr. Boswell-Syme, has a marked tendency to lengthen out. 

 Each flower measures about -2 inch across, and is supported on a 

 pedicel about 1^ inch in length, rather densely covered, like the 

 calyx, with brown, shaggy pubescence. The flower-tube (calyx- 

 tube) is inversely pyramidal, giving off from its margin 5 deltoid- 

 acuminate sepals, half the length of the oblong, obovate, obtuse, shortly 

 nnguiculate petals. The claw of the petal is sparingly ciliate ; 

 the filaments and styles (the latter free to the base) are glabrous. 

 The fruits measure about | in. in length, by about -I inch at the 

 greatest width ; they are pyriform or turbinate, rounded and obtuse 

 at the distal end, gradually tapering at the base into the pedicel. 

 The surface of the fruit is glabrous, brown, speckled with white spots. 

 The calyx segments are deciduous, and leave a circular scar round the 

 small shallow circular " eye '' of the fruit. 



Mr. Briggs states that he has only found the plant in question in 

 three or four spots in one hedgerow away from houses, though he 

 does not regard it or any other form of P. communis (growing about 

 Plymouth) as indigenous. He further remarks that the plant is 

 more shrubby and Crab-like in appearance than are most of the 

 examples of the so-called wild Pear met with about Plymouth. Very 

 noteworthy is the circumstance, also alluded to by Mr. Briggs, that the 

 plant in question, flowers late (at the beginning of May), correspond- 

 ing as to this, not with our Pears generally, which are in blossom quite 

 a iortnight or three weeks before, but witli the Apple and Crab. 



Turning now to the consideration of the French specimens, of 

 which good examples exist in the Kew Herbarium, from Gay'a Her- 

 barium and other sources, it may be well to cite the description given 

 by Decaisne, as that occurs in a work not very accessible to the majority 



