PYRUS 



2*73 



but I do not remember to have seen fruits | in. across on trees in cultiva- 

 tion. It is one of the various American mountain ashes known as "P. 

 sambucifolia." 



P. AMYGDALIFORMIS, Villars. 



A small tree occasionally 20 ft. or more high, or a large rounded shrub; 

 branches sometimes terminated by a spine ; young shoots slightly woolly at 

 first. Leaves very variable in shape and size ; oval, ovate, or obovate ; i^ to 

 2.', ins. long, -^ to f in. wide ; wedge-shfaped or rounded at the base, the 

 margins very slightly round-toothed ; covered with silky hairs when young, 

 but becoming smooth and lustrous above, and almost or quite smooth 

 beneath ; stalks slender, i to i| ins. long. Flowers white, I in. across, 

 produced in April in 

 corymbs li to 2 ins. 

 across, carrying eight 

 to twelve flowers; calyx 

 white, woolly. Fruit 

 rather orange-shaped, 

 ^ in. long, i in. wide, 

 yellowish brown, pro- 

 duced on a short, thick 

 stalk. 



Native of S. Europe, 

 especially on the coun- 

 tries bordering the 

 northern shores of the 

 Mediterranean. It has 

 no particular merit in 

 the garden except that 

 in age it makes a 

 quaint and picturesque 

 tree ; from its ally, P. 

 salicifolia, it differs in 

 its nearly smooth 

 leaves. 



Var. CUNEIFOLIA is a 

 name sometimes given 

 to the form with small 

 narrow leaves whose 

 base is slender and 

 tapering. 



Var. OBLONGIFOLIA 



PYRUS AMYGDALIFORMIS. 



This represents an- 

 other extreme, with ob- 

 long or oval leaves, 



rounded at the base, the stalk i to i| ins. long. Fruit yellowish, tinged 

 with red on the sunny side, considerably larger than in P. amygdaliformis. 

 It is common in Provence, and known there as the " Gros Perrussier." Per- 

 haps a hybrid between P. amygdaliformis and P. nivalis. 



P. SINAICA, Dumontdc Courset, is allied to P. amygdaliformis, but has larger 

 leaves and longer-stalked fruits, which are round and rather flattened. It is 

 not a native of Sinai, in spite of its name, but is believed to originate from 

 Asia Minor orlthe islands of the Grecian Archipelago. Its leaves, as in the 

 rest of this group, are white with down in spring, becoming smooth and 

 shining later. 



