CHAP. XLIE. ROSA‘CE A 933: 
R. Loureiri Spreng., Don’s Mill., 2. p. 601. ; Cratz‘gus indica Lou. 
Coch., p. 319.; is a native of Cochin-China, where it grows to the 
height of 30 ft., and — edible fruit. — rere y 
R. spiralis Don’s Mill, 2. p. 602.; Méspilus spiralis Blume Bijar., 
p. 1102. ; is a tree, a native of China, with cuneate-oblong leaves. 
Erioboirya (from erion, wool, and botrus, a bunch 
of grapes ;. in reference to the fruit and flowers, which 
are in bunches, and woolly) Iundl.; Dee. Prod., ii. 
p- 631.; Don’s Mill, ii. p. 602. This is a genus of 
Japan trees, evergreen in their foliage, which is large ; 
and, independently of their flowers, strikingly pic- 
turesque and ornamental. The species are all readily = 
propagated by grafting on the common hawthorn, or ‘s 
on the pear or quince. 
E. japonica Lindl. ; Méspilus japénica Thund. 
Jap., 206., N. Du Ham., iv. p. 146. t. 39.; Lou-Koet, 
Japan. (corrupted to Loquat, the common English 
name of the plant) ; Cratae‘gus B2bas (Bibasis, the Por- TT 4a 
tuguese name) Lour. Coch., p.319., Bot. Reg., t. 65 , 
365., and our figs. 655., and 656.) has long, broad, wrinkled, elliptic, serrate 
leaves, tomentose beneath; and terminal panicles of white flowers, which are 
succeeded by pear-shaped, yellow, 
downy fruit, about the size of 
large gooseberries. It is a native 
of China and Japan, where it is 
cultivated as a fruit tree, and also 
as being ornamental; and where 
ai it grows to the height of 20 ft. 
*\ or 30 ft. It was introduced into 
Europe in 1784, according to the 
Nouv. Du Hamel ; and it is found, 
more especially when grafted on 
the common thorn, to stand the 
winters both of Paris and London 
against a wall, with very little pro- 
tection. It has also produced fruit 
at different places in England, under glass, which, when well ripened in a stove, 
is not much inferior in taste and flavour to an ordinary plum. At Blithe- 
field, in Staffordshire, the loquat was fruited in pots, 
which were removed from the stove to the open air, 
and kept there from July to the middle of October, in 
order to give them a period of repose equivalent to a 
winter in their native country. After this, the plants 
were replaced in the stove, where they began to show 
flower about the end of December, and ripened their 
¢ <> fruit in March or April. (See Hort. Trans., vol. 3. t. 11., 
4K, —/ and E. of G., edit. 1835, p. 981.) When the loquat 
656 Ki is to be grown for its fruit, it is suggested, in the Nouv. 
Du Hamel, that the Cydonia vulgaris would form a better stock for it 
than the Cratz‘gus Oxyacantha; because the nature of the wood of the 
former, and its rate of expansion, come nearer to those of the loquat than 
those of the latter do. If it were thought worth while to grow the plant for 
its fruit, the first step would be to procure a very superior variety either from 
China, or by raising and fruiting some hundreds of seedlings in the open air, 
in Italy or Spain, and selecting those plants which produced the largest and 
best-flavoured fruit. These could be perpetuated by grafting on the quince, 
or on seedlings of the species; and the plants might be trained against a wall 
or on a trellis under glass, or against a flued wall in the warmer parts of the 
south of England, and treated as the orange tree is there. To cultivate, for 
its fruit, any variety that may accidentally we fallen into the hands of the 
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