"1 



NAT. ORDER. 



Pomacece ' f 



PYRUSCYDONA. COMMON QUINCE TREE. 



Class XII. IcosANDRiA. Order IV. Pentagynia. 



Gen. Char. Calyx, five-cleft. Petals, five. Pome, inferior, five* 



celled, many seeded. 

 Spc. Char. Leaves, purplish, entire. Flowers, solitary. 



The Quince tree seldom rises very high, and is generally crooked 

 and very much distorted ; it sends off numerous branches, and is 

 covered with a brown bark ; the leaves are simple, roundish or oval, 

 entire, on the upper side of a dusky green color, on the under whit- 

 ish, and stand upon short footstalks ; the flowers are large, solitary, 

 of a pale red or white color, and placed close to the axilte of the 

 leaves ; the calyx is composed of one leaf, and divided into five 

 spreading oval notched segments ; the corolla consists of five petals ; 

 these are large, convex, roundish, and notched at their extremities ; 

 the fllamcfits are about twenty, tapering, shorter than the corolla, 

 inserted into the calyx, and furnished with simple anthers ; the 

 germen is orbicular ; the styles are five, slender, nearly of the length 

 of the filaments, and supplied with simple stigmas ; the fruit is of the 

 apple kind, and divided at the centre into five membraneous 

 cells, containing the seeds, which are oblong, angular, pointed at 

 one end, obtuse at the other, on one side compressed, on the other 

 flat, and covered with a brownish pelhcle. It is a native of Austria, 

 and flowers in May and June. 



It appears from Pliny, that the malus Cydonia of the Greeks was, 

 originally, brought from Cydon, in Crete ; hence the name Cydona. 

 At present, the Quince tree is known to grow wild on the banks of 

 the Danube, though in a much less luxuriant state than when culti- 

 vated in our gardens, as may be found in almost every section of 



Vol. II.— I6S 



