The Loquat. 5 1 



who have secured a harvest is that the flowering takes 

 place in mid-winter, long before even peaches begin to 

 blossom. 



In its native countries, Japan and China, the tree 

 producing these desirable fruits is a handsome evergreen, 

 attaining very considerable dimensions, and living to a 

 great age. It was brought to Europe in 1784, and three 

 years afterwards direct from Canton to Kew, and in 1818 

 first ripened fruit in England. Being by no means 

 tender, it stands the open air in the southern counties, at 

 all events if placed against a wall, and in the north is 

 kept, not uncommonly, in "Winter Gardens." Under 

 cultivation, the leaves are nearly a foot in length, broadly 

 lanceolate, corrugated above, and curiously dressed with 

 fur underneath. The flowers come out in dense clusters 

 at the ends of the branchlets, individually resembling 

 those of the hawthorn, creamy-white and deliciously 

 fragrant. The peduncles and calyces are overlaid with 

 the same kind of fur as that upon the leaves, but paler. 

 Hence the scientific name, Eriobotrya. Fully developed 

 clusters of the fruit consist of as many as twelve or fifteen. 

 Being easily raised from seed, or by grafting upon a 

 quince-stock, the loquat is quite within reach as an orna- 

 mental plant. It rarely makes any superabundant growth, 

 needs no pruning, and is altogether a very interesting 

 inmate of our gardens. A coloured drawing of the 

 loquat, including foliage, flowers, and fruit, is given in 

 Edwards' Botanical Register, pi. 365 (1819), and another 

 in the Trans. Hort. Soc., vol. iii., p. 299 (1820). 



