166 MALACEAE. 



Family 8. MALACEAE J. K. Small. 



Apple Family. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate leaves, the small deciduous stipules 

 free from the petiole. Flowers regular, perfect. Calyx superior, mostly 

 5-toothed or 5-lobed, its tube adnate to the ovary. Petals mostlj^ 5, usually 

 clawed. Stamens numerous or rarely few, distinct; anthers small, 2- 

 celled; sacs longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary composed of 1 or of 2-5 wholly 

 or partly united carpels; ovules 1-2 (rarely several) in each carpel, anatro- 

 pous, ascending; styles 1-5; stigma small. Fruit a more or less fleshy 

 pome, consisting of the thickened calyx-tube enclosing the bony papery or 

 leathers^ carpels. Endosperm none; cotyledons fleshy. About 20 genera 

 and probably not fewer than 500 species, of wide geographic distribution. 

 No member of the family is native or naturalized. 



Malus Malus (L.) Britton, Apple, European, is grown sparingly; the 

 tree attains only a small size and the fruit is of poor quality, though available 

 for cooking; one grown at Harrington Home bore leaves nearly throughout 

 the year. [Pynis Malus L.] 



Cydonia Cydonia (L.) Karst., Quince, European, is grown sparingly, and 

 with indifferent success, although producing some fruit. [C. vulgaris Pers.] 



Pyrus commimis L., Pear, European, is sometimes grown but without 

 much success; as shown at Mt. Langton the trees live for many years but do 

 not fruit well nor abundantly. The leaves are deciduous ; flowers were ob- 

 served in December, 1912; the tree ordinarily flowers in spring. 



Cotoneaster pyracantha (L.) Spach. [Crataegus pyracantha Pers.], 

 Evergreen Thorn, European, has been successfully grown. It is a spiny 

 shrub, with small oblong shining leaves and corymbose white flowers. 



Lefroy records the failure of his experiment in 1872 of growing a great 

 number of species of Thorn-trees (Crataegus) from seeds received from the 

 United States. 



Cotoneaster frigida Wall., Himalayan Cotoneaster, taken to Mt. Lang- 

 ton from the New York Botanical Garden in 1913, is a nearly evergreen shrub 

 with oblong, entire leaves about 4' long and many-flowered clusters of white 

 flowers. 



Cotoneaster microphylla Wall., Small-leaved Cotoneaster, also Hima- 

 layan, and taken to Mt. Langton from the same source in 1913, is a low, much- 

 branched shrub with cuneate-obovate leaves 10" long or less, lustrous on the 

 upper side, tomentose beneath, its small white flowers usually solitary. 



Raphiolepis integerrima Hook. & Arn., Entire-leaved Eaphiolepis, 

 .Tapanese, successfully grown at the Agricultural Station in 1913, is a shrub 

 about 3° high, with thick, glabrous, evergreen, entire, petioled, obtuse, alter- 

 nate leaves 2'-3' long, den§e, terminal panicles of white flowers 2-4' long, the 

 oblong, blunt petals 4"-5" long, the globose black fruits about 4" in diameter. 



Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl., Loquat, .Japanese, grows luxuriantly 

 and has been much planted for its edible fruit, which, however, is punctured 

 by the fruit-fly, and no considerable quantity of good loquats are now pro- 

 duced. The Loquat is a small tree, attaining about 25° in maximum height, 

 with thick, oblong, serrate leaves 4'-8' long, narrowed at both ends, and 

 brownish-woolly beneath, its white flowers in short dense woolly terminal 

 panicles, the 5 petals crenulate; the fruit is a yellow, oval or pear-shaped acid 

 pome about l^V long. [Mespilus japonica Thunb.] 



