PURSHIA PYRACANTHA 267 



Society's Garden in 1830. According to Loudon, all the plants about 

 London were killed during the winter of 1837-8, but plants have grown 

 unsheltered in a border at Kew for over twenty years. It is not a very 

 attractive shrub, although curious and interesting. It prefers a rather 

 light soil, and can be propagated by layers. The genus, of which two 

 species are known, was named in honour of Fred. Pursh, author of a 

 flora of N. America (1814). 



PYRACANTHA. ROSACES. 



The three species whose descriptions are given below have been by 

 various authors placed in Cotoneaster, Mespilus, and Crataegus. They 

 are, no doubt, most closely allied to the last, differing chiefly in having 

 leafy thorns, in being evergreen, and in the leaves being either entire 

 or merely toothed, never lobed. There are also differences in the ovules. 

 From Cotoneaster they are equally distinct in having thorny branches 

 and toothed leaves. For the rest they may be described as evergreen 

 shrubs with alternate leaves and white flowers ; stamens about twenty ; 

 styles five. Fruits globose or orange-shaped, yellow, or scarlet. They 

 are easily satisfied as regards soil, thriving in any that is warm and not too 

 heavy. P. coccinea is the only species that can be grown in the open 

 ground; the other two need wall protection to be seen at their best, 

 except some forms or allies of P. crenulata introduced by Wilson 

 and Forrest from China. Propagation is by seeds, or by cuttings made of 

 firm leafy twigs in late summer. 



P. ANGUSTIFOLIA, C. K. Schneider. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 8345 5 Cotoneaster angustifolia, Franc/iet.} 



An evergreen shrub probably 10 or 12 ft. high, of dense, spreading, bushy 

 habit ; branches rather rigid, horizontal, often spine-tipped, covered the first 

 year with a thick, grey down. Leaves narrow oblong or slightly obovate, 

 rounded or tapered at the base, rounded at the apex with a minute tip or 

 slight notch there ; the larger leaves have a few minute dark stiff teeth near 

 the apex, the smaller ones mostly entire ; they are ^ to 2% ins. long, to \ in. 

 wide, smooth, dark green above, covered beneath with a grey felt ; stalk 

 ^.j to in. long. Flowers white, \ in. across, in corymbs 2 ins. wide, of little 

 beauty ; calyx ancl flower-stalk felted. Fruit brilliant orange-yellow when 

 ripe, covered with grey down when young, J to f in. in diameter, much 

 flattened at the top ; seeds five. 



Native of W. China; introduced to Kew by Lieut. Jones in 1899, and 

 again a few years later through Mr de Vilmorin. I saw it in great beauty at 

 Les Barres in 1908, loaded with fruit, and the whole plant much more woolly 

 than it is in Great Britain. After the hot summer of 1911, a plant on a wall 

 at Kew bore fruit very freely, and at Glasnevin, Dublin, in February 1913, it 

 was finely in fruit against a wall. It is quite tender in the open ground. Its 

 round-ended, nearly or quite entire leaves, and dense woolliness readily distin- 

 guish it from the two other species. It is valuable in retaining its berries in 

 full beauty until March, long after those of P. coccinea have fallen. 



