MES 



M E S 



qucntly. They succeed well in an airy glass 

 case during the winter, when screened from the 

 frosts. 



Such sorts as do not afford cuttings, may also 

 be increased by planting and managing the bot- 

 tom side-heads or off-sets in the above manner. 

 They may likewise be increased bv seeds or cut- 

 tings readily in the stove. 



The only culture necessary afterwards is, only 

 to give water frequently in small quantities in 

 summer, and very sparingly in winter, shift- 

 ing the plants occasionally into larger pots. 



These are plants which afford a fine variety in 

 green-house collections, and among other pot- 

 ted plants of similar growths. 



MESPILUS, a genus containing plants of 

 the deciduous tree, flowering shrubby, and ever- 

 green kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Icosandria 

 Peiitagi/niu, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Pomaceee. 



The characters are : that the calvx is a one- 

 leafed periamhium, concave-spreading, five-cleft, 

 permanent! the corolla has five roundish con- 

 cave petals inserted into the calyx : the stamina 

 have twenty awl-shaped filaments, inserted into 

 the calyx,: anthers simple : the pistillum is an 

 inferior germ : styles live, simple, erect: stigmas 

 headed : the periearpium is a globular berry, 

 lunbilicated, closed by the converging calyx, 

 but almost perforated bv the navel: the seeds 

 five, bony, gibbous. 



The species cultivated are: 1. M. Ger- 

 manica, Dutch or Common Medlar ; 2. M. 

 arlutif'olia, Arbutus -leaved Mespilus ; 3. M. 

 Amtlanchier, Alpine Mespilus ; 4. M. Chamce- 

 Mespikts, Bastard Ouince, or Mespilus; 5. 

 M. Canadensis, Snowy Mespilus ; 6. M. co- 

 toneaster, Dwarf Mespilus ; 7. M. lomenlosa, 

 Quince-leaved Mespilus ; 8. M. pyracantha, 

 Evergreen Thorn or Mespilus. 



The first is a small or middle-sized branch- 

 ing tree : the brandies woolly, armed in a wild 

 state with stiff spines, covered with an ash-co- 

 loured bark : the leaves oval-lanceolate, serrate 

 towards the point, somewhat woolly, on very 

 short channelled petioles ; the bractes linear, as 

 long as the corolla : the. calyxes terminating, 

 fleshy, woolly within ; teeth longer than the 

 corolla : the petals white, blunt, entire, with a 

 very short claw : the stamens unequal, thirty or 

 more, with cloven anthers : the fruit an inferior 

 turbinated berry, urnbilieated at top with a wide 

 depressed area, and crowned with the five linear 

 calycine leaflets, fleshy, reddish brown; pulp 

 thick mixed with eallose granules, containing 

 five gibbous, wrinkled, one-celled stones, in 

 each of which are two seeds. 

 3 



It is observed that the wild tree differs from- 

 the cultivated one in having more slender, 

 strigose, thorny branches, and ranch smaller 

 leaves, flowers, and fruits. Pallas found all the 

 parts very small, in his specimens from Persia, 

 with narrower leaves, serrulate frequently al- 

 most o the base. In those from Caucasus the 

 leaves were somewhat larger, ami sometimes 

 quite entire: and according to Gmelin, in the 

 Persian Medlar, the leaves are red when they 

 burst from the buds : the spines only three or 

 four lines in length, stout, very sharp, spread- 

 ing : the styles four or five : the fruit much 

 smaller than in the garden sort. It is a native 

 of the South of Europe, flowering in June and 

 July. 



There are two varieties, the narrow-leaved and 

 the broad-leaved ; the first growing to a large 

 tree, rising with a straighter stem, and the 

 branches growing more upright than those of 

 the Dutch Medlar : the leaves are narrower and 

 not serrate : the flowers smaller ; and the fruit 

 shaped like a pear. It is a native of Sicily. 



The latter never rises with an upright trunk, 

 but sends out crooked deformed branches at a 

 small height from the ground : the leaves are 

 very large, entire, and downy on their under 

 side: the flowers very large, as also the fruit, 

 which is rounder, and approaches nearer to the- 

 shape of an apple : this, bearing the largest 

 fruit, is now generally cultivated ; but there is 

 one with smaller fruit, called the Nottingham 

 Medlar, of a much quicker and more poignant 

 taste. There are also other varieties in the fruit, 

 which are now little attended to. 



The second species seldom rises more than 

 five or six feet high, where it grows naturally ; 

 and three or four feet is the greatest height it 

 attains in this climate : the branches are lew, 

 slender, upright: the leaves alternate,pale green 

 above, ash-coloured underneath : the flowers 

 produced in small bunches, on long peduncles, 

 at the sides and extremities of the branches : 

 the petals dull white, with several brown spots 

 on their upper side : the fruit small, roundish, 

 a little compressed, purple when ripe. It 

 flowers in May, and the fruit ripens in October. 

 It is a native of Virginia. 



It varies with red, with black, and with 

 white fruit. 



The third rises with many slender stems 

 three or four feet high, putting out small side 

 branches covered with a dark purple bark : the 

 leaves are three quarters of an inch long, and 

 half an inch broad, slightly serrate: the small 

 side branches, which sustain the flowers, are 

 very hairy and woolly, as are also the footstalks 

 and under side of the leaves, but their upper 





