1574 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



SECTION AUCUPARIA 



Small trees or shrubs, defined in Vol. I. p. 142, as constituting one group of the 

 section Sorbus l of the genus Pyrus. They are characterised as follows : Leaves 

 deciduous, alternate, unequally pinnate, with serrate leaflets and foliaceous stipules. 

 Flowers perfect, in terminal compound corymbose cymes ; calyx urn-shaped, with five 

 persistent lobes ; petals five, suborbicular, white ; stamens about twenty ; ovary 

 usually three-celled, and surmounted by three styles, occasionally two- to four-celled, 

 with two to four styles ; ovules two in each cell. Fruit a small sub-globose pome, 

 with acid flesh and papery carpels, which are free at the apex ; seeds two, or one by 

 abortion, in each cell. 



About twenty species of the section Aucuparia are known, widely distributed over 

 the extra- tropical regions of the northern hemisphere. Of these P. Aucuparia, 

 which is a native tree, will be described in detail. About six exotic species have 

 been introduced. 



I. Buds very glutinous, showing no white tomentum at the tip. 



* Stipules early deciduous. 



1. Pyrus americana, De Candolle, Prod. ii. 637 (1825). 



Leaflets, thirteen to seventeen, 2 to i\ in. long, \ in. broad ; under surface pale 

 with scattered pubescence. Fruit, \ in. in diameter, said by Sargent 2 to be 

 bright red, but purplish or bronze-coloured in England. A small tree, widely 

 spread in North America. Introduced in 1782, and said by Loudon to be more 

 tender than the native species ; but it appears to thrive at Kew and at Tortworth. 



Var. decora, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xiv. 10 1 (1902). 



This differs from the type in bearing large scarlet fruit, ^ in. in diameter, 

 It is apparently the tree often known in cultivation as P. sambucifolia? 



2. Pyrus commixta* Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, vi. pt. 2, 



p. 90 (1906). 

 Leaflets, nine to thirteen, 2 in. long, f in. broad, tapering to a long caudate- 

 acuminate apex, glabrous beneath. Fruit red, \ in. in diameter. A small tree, 

 native of Japan. 5 A specimen at Kew, obtained from Spath in 1900, is about 

 15 ft. high and very thriving. 



1 Sorbus is regarded by many botanists as a distinct genus ; but there is no agreement amongst the various authorities as 

 to its limits. Koehne, Deutsche Dendrologie, 246 (1893), includes in Sorbus only the mountain ashes. Schneider, Laub- 

 hohkunde, i. 667 (1906), gives it a much wider scope. Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, vi. pt. 2, p. 85 

 (1906), takes another view, which agrees practically with the arrangement given in our Vol. I. pp. 141- 142. 



1 Silva N. Amer. iv. 79, tt. 171, 172 (1892). It is described by Sargent, Trees N. Amer, 356 (1905), as Sorbus 

 americana, Marshall, Arb. Amer. 145 (1785). 



3 The true P. sambucifolia, Chamisso and Schlechtendal, in Linruza, ii. 36 (1827), is a native of eastern Siberia, 

 Saghalien, and Yezo ; and has not yet been introduced. 



4 This was first described as Sorbus Aucuparia, var. japonica, Maximowicz, in Mil. Biol. ix. 160 (1873). It is Sorbus 

 japonica, Koehne, in Gartcnflora, 1. 408 (190 1) (not Siebold) ; and is also named Sorbus commixta, Hedlund, in Kgl. Svensk. 



Vet. Akad. Handl. xxxv. 38 (1 90 1). 



6 Var. rufo-ferruginca, Shirai, ex Schneider, Laubhohkunde, i. 678 (1906), has rusty red pubescence on the rachis and 

 under surface of the leaflets. This was collected by Elwes at Chuzengi at 4000 ft. altitude, and is possibly a distinct species. 

 It has not been introduced. 



