CLASS XII. ORDER II. j PYRUS. 691 



the calyx. Styles three, sometimes four, slender. Fruit turbinate, 

 with three or four bony carpels, adhering to the sides of the mealy 

 calyx, but the ends are free, and closed over by the calyx segments, of 

 a crirasou colour, sometimes black or yellow. 



Habitat Limestone cliffs at Ormeshead, Caernarvonshire. 



Shrub; flowering in July. 



The Cotoneaster is a small shrub, very leafy, and recommended by 

 Linnaeus for making low fences in dry broken ground, on account of 

 the roots being very long, and running deep into the ground. Its 

 flowers are often polygamous, and the calyx, as well as the peduncle, 

 is sometimes scattered over with hairs; hut its leaves are not elliptical, 

 with both the base and apex obtuse, the only permanent character by 

 which it is distinguished from C. tomenlosa, Lindl., a species found in 

 the alpine districts of the Continent. 



GENUS VI. PY'RUS. LINN. Pear Apple and Service. 

 Nat. Ord. ROSA 'CEJE. Joss. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx with five segments. Petals five, roundish. Styles 

 two to five. Fruit a pomum (apple), fleshy, with from two to live 

 two seeded cartilaginous cells. Name from the Celtic peren, a 

 pear. In Greek aT;o?, from api, Celtic ; whence apple in 

 English, and apfel in German. 



* Leaves simple. 



1. P. commu'nis, Linn. (Fig. 787.) Wild Pear-tree. Leaves simple, 

 ovate, petiolated, serrated; peduncles corymbose; styles free; fruit 

 turbinate. 



English Botany, t. 1784. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 362. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 196. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 105. 



A tall handsome tree, with a straight bole and branches, the bark 

 smooth, greyish brown, the barren branches terminating in a strong 

 spine. Leaves numerous, alternate, and in clusters from the buds or 

 spurs, petiole rather long, bearing a roundish ovate or ovate acumi- 

 nated leaf, with a more or less distinctly serrated margin, when young 

 downy, especially beneath, and copiously fringed on the margins ; 

 as the leaf becomes older the downiness falls away, and it is a smooth 

 shining green. Stipule* slender, linear, soon falling away. Inflo- 

 rescence terminal, corymbose, mostly of numerous flowers, with long 

 downy peduncles. Calyx downy, with a spreading limb, much shorter 

 than the white ovate short clawed petals. Stamens with slender awl- 

 shaped filaments, and roundish anthers, of two cells, a pink colour, 

 becoming brown. Styles five, free, with acute stigmas. Fruit obo- 

 vate, turbinate, hard, and mostly of an austere taste in a wild state. 

 Habitat. Woods and hedges ; not uncommon. 

 Tree; flowering in April and May. 



