CLASS XH. ORDER 11.] MESPILUS. 687 



Habitat. — Woods and hedges, not unfrequent; especially in the 

 Northern Counties of England and Scotland. 

 Tree; flowering in May. 



The Bird Cherry is a pretty ornamental small sized tree, having 

 a cheerful appearance from its numerous pale leaves, and when in 

 flower its pendulous racemes are highly ornamental, hut they con- 

 tinue, a very short time, though succeeded by the fruit, which is 

 equally pretty. The berries are mostly black, sometimes green, and 

 more rarely red. Their taste is very austere and nauseous, though 

 greedily devoured by birds, and on that account those persons who 

 wish to encourage the blackbird or thrush in their plantations, will do 

 well to furnish them with this tree as a favourite food, and at the same 

 time wherever green trees are not an object, few of the deciduous ones 

 are more ornamental. It is a free grower, and flourishes in almost all 

 kinds of soil, but best in a dry one. The wood is beautifully veined, 

 and highly esteemed by cabinet-makers for ornamental purposes ; and 

 the bark is used with success in the cure of some stages of venereal 

 aff'eclions, according to the account of the Stockholm Transactions. 



ORDER II. 



PENTAGY'NIA. 5 Pistils, {but variable), 



GENUS III. MESPl'LUS.— Linn. Medlar. 



Nat. Ord. Rosa'ceje. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx five cleft, foliaceous. Petals five. Disk large. 

 Styles two to five, smooth. Fruit turbinate, the area at the apex 

 much divided, and exposing the hardened ends of the cells. — 

 Name from jUEo-TrtA*?, the Greek word for Medlar. 



1. M. Germani'ca, Linn. (Fig. 784.) Common Medlar. Leaves 

 lanceolate, pale and downy beneath ; flowers solitary. 



English Botany, t. 1523.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 360.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 196, — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 104. 



A small tree, with smooth brown bark, the branches much divided 

 and spreading, downy at the extremity. Leaves alternate, deciduous, 

 lanceolate or oblong, lanceolate, with an acuminated point, the margins 

 finely and irregularly serrated, smooth, or scarcely downy above, pale 

 and downy beneath, the petiole short, terminating in a stout mid-rib, 

 and branched lateral veins. Flowers solitary at the end of the branches. 

 Bracteas linear. Calyx very downy, with linear leafy spreading seg- 

 ments, from half an inch to an inch long, persistent. Petals white, 

 roundish ovate, creased and waved on the margin, with a short claw, 

 and reticulated with branched divided veins. Stamens with awl-shaped 



