20G XXXII. ROSACEA. [Pyrus 



Extremities, underside of leaves, inflorescence, and calyx white-tomen- 

 tose. Leaves ovate, obtuse at the base, entire, on short petioles. Stipules 

 oblong, obtuse, glandular-serrate. Flowers large, white, 2 in. across, on 

 short peduncles, solitary, or a few together at the end of short leaf-bearing 

 branchlets. Calyx -lobes leafy, oblong -lanceolate, glandular -serrate, re- 

 flexed, longer than calyx-tube. Fruit pyriform, clothed with grey or yel- 

 low, woolly tomentum, 5-celled ; cells cartilaginous, many-seeded. Seeds 

 covered with mucilaginous pulp. 



The Quince is cultivated in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Persia, Sindh, the 

 Panjab plains, and the North-West Himalaya, ascending to 5500 ft., also in 

 Western Asia and Europe. Wild or apparently wild in Greece, Thracia, the 

 Caucasus, Armenia, and North Persia (Boissier). According to C. Koch, Dendrol. 

 i. 220, the original home of the Quince is not known. Like other pomaceous 

 trees and shrubs, it springs up readily from self-sown seed, and has thus estab 

 lished itself in many localities. In the Panjab the fruit ripens in June and 

 July. Hardy in England. 



6. P. Aria, Ehrh. j Hook. Stud. Fl. 126. Syn. P. Kumaonensis, 

 Wall. ; P. vestitayWall. ; P. lanata, Don. ; Sorbus Aria, Crantz ; Boissier 

 Fl. Orient, ii. 658. Vern. Gun palos, Afg. ; Doda, chola, chilana, maila 

 (tang), paltu, ban pcila, hanghi, thanki, morphal, marpol, Pb., Him.; 

 Galion, mauli, paltu, banpalti, N.W.P., Him. 



A moderate-sized tree. Extremities, inflorescence, underside of leaves, 

 and calyx clothed with white woolly tomentum. Leaves 3-5 in. long, 

 ovate or obovate, coarsely serrate, and generally lobed, with 6-12 pair of 

 prominent lateral nerves, each terminating in an acute lobe. Petiole J-l 

 in. long. Flowers white, odorous, ^ in. diam., in terminal compound 

 corymbs. Fruit red, j-1 in. long, turbinate, or globose, crowned with the 

 persistent calyx-lobes, 2-8-celled, cells 1 -seeded, endocarp brittle. 



Common in many parts of the Himalaya, between 5000 and 10,000 ft., from 

 the Indus to Bhutan. Also in Afghanistan, Europe, North Africa, Siberia, and 

 Western Asia. Fl. Apr.-May ; fruit Aug.-Oct. Branchlets brown, with white 

 specks, larger branches often white, bark of trunk reddish or dark-brown, with 

 shallow, longitudinal wrinkles. The tree is readily known by the white under- 

 side of leaves, the abundant white blossoms, and the showy red fruit. Wood 

 light-coloured, compact. Fruit eaten when half rotten. In Europe, P. Aria is 

 an exceedingly variable species, varying with undivided, lobed, and pinnatifkl 

 leaves, and divided by many botanists into several species. 



The common Medlar, P. (Mespilus), germanica, Linn., with spinescent 

 branchlets, oblong-lanceolate leaves, large solitary white flowers, and 5-celled 

 fruit, with a bony endocarp, the cells 1-seeded, is wild in Western Asia, Greece, 

 and Thracia, naturalised in the rest of Europe, but has not yet been found in 

 the Himalaya. 



7. P. ursina, Wall. Vern. Sulia, hulia. 



A shrub or small tree. Buds, inflorescence, petioles and underside of 

 leaflets along nerves hispid with long, generally rusty hairs. Leaves 4-6 

 in. long, imparipinnate ; leaflets 8-12 pair, opposite, sessile, oblong, the 

 middle ones longer than the upper and lower, 1-1 \ in. long, cuspidate- 

 serrate. Flowers greenish white, unpleasant -smelling, in compound 



