3 
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ROSACEZ. 235 
There are two derivations given for the name of this genus. One author says it 
comes from pecoc (mesos), a half, and ziAoc (pilos), a bullet, from the fruit resembling 
half a bullet. Another gives as the origin the words peooc, middle, and mAew, I 
bind together, referring to the astringent qualities of the species. 
SPECIES I—MESPILUS GERMANICA. Linn. 
Prats CCCCLXXVIII. 
Branches spinous in the wild plant. Leaves shortly stalked, 
oblong-oblanceolate, abruptly acuminated, entire or finely serrated, 
slightly pubescent beneath. Flowers shortly stalked, solitary. 
In hedges and thickets. Rare, and doubtfully native. The 
counties to which it has most claim are those of Sussex, Kent, 
Surrey, and Worcester ; it is found also in Devonshire, but is 
acknowledged to be planted. I have only met with it near 
Reigate, Surrey, where it appears to me not to have the slightest 
claim to be considered native. 
England? Tree. Early Summer. 
A large shrub, more rarely a tree, with spreading tortuous 
branches, many of them armed with spines. Leaves unequal in 
size, the largest close to the flowers, where they are from 2 to 4 
inches long. Flowers 13 inch in diameter. Pedicels very short, 
felted-pubescent. Calyx-segments deltoid, attenuated into a long 
linear’ foliaceous point, exceeding the petals. Petals obovate, 
roundish. Styles 5. Fruit depressed, turbinate, $ inch across or 
more, rarely produced in the wild plant, slightly downy, reddish 
brown, containing 5 compressed rugose stones, embedded in rather 
dry pulp. 
Wild Mediar. 
French, Véflier Commun. German, Deutsche Mispel. 
The Medlar-tree was known to the Greeks, and has been in cultivation in British 
gardens for an indefinite period ; not only the species but several varieties being men- 
tioned by Turner, Gerarde, Parkinson, and other early British writers on botany and 
gardening. The fruit is never eaten until it is in an incipient state of decay : when firm 
and sound, they are singularly harsh and austere, but acquire a flavour agreeable to 
many by being kept. The fruit should be gathered towards the end of October or 
November, when some should be laid in moist bran to hasten their decay, others on 
straw ; those. in the bran will be ready for eating in about a fortnight, and those 
laid on straw will gradually come forward in succession. In the North of England 
the fruit seldom ripens, though it blossoms freely. Loudon tells us that in some of the 
old gardens about Twickenham there are Medlar-trees growing from 25 to 30 feet in 
height, with heads from 30 to 40 feet in diameter. In Bagshot Park, in Surrey, one 
planted twenty years ago is 18 feet high. 
