Genus CYDONIA, Tourn. 
Rosaceae. 
St/st. Nat. 
Icosandria Di-Pentagynia. 
Syst. Lin. 
Synonymes. 
Pyrus, Sorbus, Cydonia, 
Of Authors. 
Derivations. The genus Cydonia is so called from Cydon, in Candia, its native place. It was formerly classified with tha 
genera Pyrus and Sorbus, from the resemblance of its fruit to that of the service and the pear. 
Generic Characters. Fruit a pome. Carpels 5, each including many seeds. Testa mucilaginous. Calyx 
5-parted, with leafy divisions. 
^HE genus Cydonia consists of low, deciduous trees or shrubs, 
natives of Europe and Asia, which are easily propagated by lay- 
ers, and by grafting on the common thorn. The species most 
worthy of culture are the Cydonia vulgaris, hereafter described, 
and the Cydonia japonica, commonly known by the name of 
Pyras japonica. The latter is a shrub, native of China and 
Japan, growing to a height of five or six feet, and flowering a great part of the 
year, more especially if supplied with water during the hottest months. It is one 
of the most desirable deciduous shrubs in cultivation, whether as a bush in the 
open lawn, trained against a wall, or treated as an ornamental hedge plant. It 
has also been trained up with a single stem as a standard; and, in this charac- 
ter, its pendent branches and numerous flowers, give it a rich and striking 
appearance, particularly in early spring. It has ripened fruit in Europe and 
America, both as a bush, and when trained against a wall ; which, even when 
ripe, is unfit to eat, though it has so fragrant an odour as to induce some persons 
to keep it among their clothes. Miss Twamley, in her " Romance of Nature," in 
speaking of this shrub, calls its flowers "fairy fires," 
" That gleam and glow amid the wintry scene, 
Lighting their ruddy beacons at the sun, 
To melt away the snow. See how it falls 
In drops of crystal from the glowing spray ; 
Wreathed in deep crimsoned buds the fairy fires." 
To the same natural family belong the following genera : 
1. Photinia, embracing evergreen trees, with undivided, coriaceous, serrated, 
or entire leaves, and, in most cases, with corymbose flowers, and small fruit. 
They are natives of China, India, Japan, and California. 
2. Cotoneaster, consisting of several species of very desirable garden shrubs or 
low trees, natives of Europe and India. The C. frigida and aifinis, in particular, 
from the abundance of intense scarlet-coloured fruit they bear, which remains 
on the trees a greater part of the winter, well deserve a place in every collection. 
3. Raphiolepis, a genus, the species of which are evergreen trees or shrubs, 
native of China, with crenulated, coriaceous, reticulated leaves. 
4. Erlobotrya. a genus of Japanese trees, evergreen in their foliage, which is 
large, and independently of their flowers, are strikingly picturesque and orna- 
mental. The species the most worthy of cultivation is the E. japonica. 
5. Kageneckia, a genus of evergreen trees, native of Chili and Peru, the leaves 
