Pyrus 



J559 



with a bole 10 ft. long ; and it appears to be one of the earliest trees planted in 

 this garden, which was founded in 1798. A tree at Beauport, Sussex, 32 ft. by 

 5 ft., was bearing fruit in November 1911, 



** Midrib without glands. 

 (a) Under surface of the leaves with only traces of tomentum in summer. 



9. Pyrus amygdaliformis, Villar, Cat. Meth. Jardin Strasbourg, 323 (1807). 



A spiny shrub or small tree. Branchlets and buds slightly tomentose. 

 Leaves, 1 to 2 in. long, coriaceous; variable in shape, lanceolate to narrowly 

 elliptical, acuminate or rounded with a mucro at the apex ; covered in spring on 

 both surfaces with grey tomentum, which disappears in greater part during 

 summer, usually entire in margin ; petiole short, slightly tomentose. Fruit 

 sub-globose, f in. in diameter, with the stalk scarcely thickened. 



A native 1 of southern Europe, occurring in France on dry arid soil in the 

 region of the olive, and spread through Spain, Italy, Istria, Dalmatia, Balkan 

 States, Greece, and Asia Minor. In March 1910 Elwes saw a fine tree in 

 flower on the Plan d'Aups near St. Baume, in the department of Var, at about 

 3000 ft. altitude. It was about 25 ft. by 6 ft. 



Introduced in 1810, and occasionally seen in botanic gardens; it attains at 

 Cambridge 30 ft. in height. 



(b) Leaves densely tomentose beneath in summer. 



10. Pyrus nivalis, Jacquin, Fl. Austr. ii. 4, t. 107 (1774). 



A tree without thorns. Young branchlets and buds more or less tomentose. 

 Leaves 2\ to 3 in. long, \\ to l\ in. broad, elliptic to obovate-oblong, usually 

 cuneate at the base, abruptly contracted into an acuminate apex ; covered at 

 first with a grey tomentum, persisting in summer on the under surface, and to a 

 less extent on the shining green upper surface ; margin entire or irregularly 

 and minutely crenulate towards the apex ; petiole tomentose, about 1 in. long. 

 Fruit pyriform, about 1^ in. in diameter. 



This tree, which is known in Austria as the schnee birn or " snow pear," 

 is doubtfully wild in Croatia, Hungary, and Transylvania. Schneider regards 

 it as a cultivated form of P. elceagrifolia ; but Focke 2 with more probability 

 considers it to be a cross between P. amygdaliformis and P. communis which has 

 escaped from cultivation. It appears to be closely allied to, if not identical with 

 P. salvifolia, 3 De Candolle, Prod. ii. 634 (1825), which is naturalised in woods 

 and hedges in central France, and often cultivated for making perry. 



P. nivalis was introduced in 1826, and is represented at Kew by a tree about 

 25 ft. high. 



1 P. persica, Persoon, Syn. PI. ii. 40 (1807) is probably a hybrid, arising from P. amgydaliformis, as there are no 

 grounds for supposing it to be a native of Persia or Mount Sinai, as was formerly supposed. It has obovate-oblong or elliptic 

 leaves, 2 to z\ in. long, 1 in. broad, entire in margin, mucronate at the rounded apex, dark shining green and slightly 

 tomentose above, pale and with scattered tomentum beneath ; buds glabrous. This is represented at Kew by a tree 20 ft. 

 high obtained in 1875 from Decaisne, as P. sinaica, Thouin, in Mtm. Mus. Hist. Nat. i. 170 (1815) ; and by an older tree, 

 30 ft. high, similarly labelled, at Cambridge. Decaisne, Jardin Fruitier, t. 15 (187 1), however, gives a figure of P. sinaica, 

 which does not agree in foliage with the tree which he sent to Kew. 



2 Ex Ascherson and Graebner, op. cit. 65 (1906). 3 Cf. Mathieu, Fl. Forest. 170 (1897). 



VI 2 G 



