M E S 



M E S 



quently. Tliey succeed well in an airy glass 

 case during the winter, when screened from the 

 Irosts. 



Such sorts as do not afford cuttings, may also 

 be increased by planting and managing the bot- 

 tom side-heads or off-sets in the above manner. 

 They may likewise be increased bv seeds or cut- 

 tings readily in the stove. 



The only culture necessary afterwards is, only 

 to give water frcquentlv in small quantities in 

 sunmier, and very sparingly in winter, shift- 

 ing the plants occasionally into larger pots. 



These are plants which afford a fine variety in 

 green-house collections, and among other pot- 

 ted plants of similar growths. 



MCSPILUS, a genus containing plants of 

 the deciduous tree, flowering shrubby, and ever- 

 green kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Icosumlria 



Fell las 



■gym 



and ranks in the natural order of 



Pomacece. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianthiuni, concave-spreading, five-cleft, 

 permanentt the corolla has five roundish con- 

 cave petals inserted into the calyx : the stamina 

 have twenty awl-shaped filaments, inserted into 

 the calyx : anthers simple : the pistillum is an 

 inferior germ : styles five, simple, erect: stigmas 

 headed : the pericarpium is a globular berry, 

 umbilicated, closed by the converging calyx, 

 but almost perforated by the navel: the seeds 

 five, bony, gibbous. 



The species cultivated are: 1. M, Ger- 

 ma/iica, Dutch or Common Medlar ; 2. M. 

 arhiitifoUa, Arbutus-leaved Mespilus ; 3. il/. 

 Amela/ichier, Alpine Mespilus ; 4. M. Chamce- 

 Mf.spUus, Bastard Quince, or Mespilus; 5. 

 M. Canadensis, Snowy Mespilus ; 6. M. co- 

 ioiieasler. Dwarf Mespilus ; '. M. tomentosa. 

 Quince-leaved Mespilus; 8. AI. pyracanlha, 

 £vergreen Thorn or Mespilus. 



The first is a small or middle-sized branch- 

 ing tree : the branches woolly, armed in a wild 

 state with stiff spines, covered with an ash-co- 

 loured bark : the leaves oval-lanceolate, serrate 

 towards the point, somewhat woolly, on very 

 short channelled petioles ; the bractes linear, as 

 long as the corolla : the calyxes terminating, 

 fleshv, woolly within ; teeth longer than the 

 corolla : the petals white, blunt, entire, with a 

 very short claw : the stamens unequal, thirty or 

 more, with cloven anthers : the fruit an inferior 

 turbinated berry, umbilicated at top with a wide 

 depressed area, and crowned with the five linear 

 calycine leaflets, fleshy, reddish brown; pulp 

 thick mixed with callose granules, containing 

 five gibbous, wrinkled, one-celled stones, in 

 satb of which are two seeds. 



It is observed that the wild tree differs from 

 the cultivated one in having more slender, 

 strigose, thorny branches, and much smaller 

 leaves, flowers, and fruits. Pallas found all the 

 parts very small, in his specimens from Persia, 

 with narrower leaves, serrulate frequently al- 

 most Lo the base. In those from Caucasus the 

 leaves were somewhat larger, and sometimes 

 quite entire: and according to Gmelin, in the 

 Persian Medlar, the leaves are red when they 

 burst from the buds : the spines only three or 

 four lines in length, stout, very sharp, spread- 

 ing : the styles four or five : the fruit much 

 smaller than in the garden sort. It is a native 

 of the South of Europe, flowering in June and 

 July. 



There are two varieties, the narrow-leaved and 

 the broad-leaved ; the first jiTowing to a large 

 tree, rising with a straighter stem, and the 

 branches growing more upright than those of" 

 the Dutch Medlar : the leaves are narrower and 

 not serrate : ihe flowers smaller ; and the fruit 

 shaped like a pear. It is a native of Sicily. 



The latter never rises v^'ith an upright trunk, 

 but sends out crooked deformed branches at a 

 small height from the ground : the leaves are 

 very large, entire, and downy on their under 

 side: the llowers very large, as also the fruit, 

 which is rounder, and approaches nearer to the 

 shape of an apple : this, bearing the largest 

 fruit, is now generally cultivated ; but there is 

 one with smaller fruit, called the Nottingham 

 Medlar, of a much quicker and more poignant 

 taste. There are also other varieties in the fruit, 

 which are now little attended to. 



The second species seldom rises more than 

 five or six feet high, where it grows naturally ; 

 and three or four feet is the greatest height it 

 attains in this climate : the branches are few, 

 slender, upright: the leaves alternate, pale green 

 above, ash-coloured underneath : the flowers 

 produced in small bunches, on long peduncles, 

 at the sides and extremities of the branches : 

 the petals dull white, with several brown spots 

 on their upper side : the fruit small, roundish, 

 a little compressed, purple when ripe. It 

 flouers in M;iy, and the fruit ripens in October. 

 It is a native of Virginia. 



It varies with red, with black, and with 

 white fruit. 



The third rises with many slender stems 

 three or ibur feet high, puttmg out small side 

 branches covered with a dark purple bark ; the 

 leaves are three quarters of an inch long, and 

 half an inch broad, slightly serrate: the small 

 side branches, which sustain the flowers, are 

 very hairy and woolly, as are also the footstalks 

 and under side of tiie leaves, but their upper 



