1 732, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1. Mespilus grandiflora, Smith, Exot. Bot. i. 33, t. 18 (18 14). 



Mespilus Mala, Poiret, in Lamarck, Encyc. Meth. Suppl. iv. 71 (1816) ; W. J. Hooker, in Bot. 

 Mag.X. 3442 (1835). 



Mespilus Smithii, De Candolle, Prod. ii. 633 (1825); Loudon, Arb. el Fruit. Brit. ii. 878 (1838). 

 Crataegus lobata, Bosc, Nouv. Cours. Agric. ii. 223 (1821). 

 Crataegus grandiflora, Koch, in Verh. Ver. Be/. Gartenb. i. 227 (1853). 

 Cratagus oxyacantlw-germanica, Gillot, in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxiii. p. xiv. (1876). 

 Pyrus lobata, Nicholson, Kew Hand-list Trees, 195 (1894) (not Koch). 

 Cratamespilus grandiflora, Camus, in Journ. de Bot. xiii. 326 (1899). 



A tree, attaining about 25 ft. in height. Branchlets pubescent, with short 

 aborted spines. Leaves very variable in shape, entire or three- to five-toothed near 

 the apex, or five- to seven-lobed and finely serrate, pubescent beneath. Flowers 

 large, white, fragrant like a hawthorn, solitary or two to five in a corymb ; calyx 

 segments lanceolate, soon reflexed ; petals five ; stamens twenty ; styles one to four ; 

 disc lobed. Fruit ovoid or globose, reddish brown, \ in. in diameter, crowned by 

 the sepals, with usually two or three nutlets, which are sterile. 



This tree, the origin of which is unknown, is considered by most botanists 

 to be an accidental hybrid between Cratcegus oxyacantha and Mespilus germanica ; 

 but Koehne 1 considers it to be an independent species, possibly native of the 

 Caucasus. Five apparently wild shrubs were found in 1875 at Saint-Sernin-du-Bois, 

 near Autun, in Seine-et-Loire, in a hedge around the ruins of an old priory, by Dr. 

 Giliot, 2 whose interesting article should be studied. This remarkable tree, of which 

 there is a good specimen 3 at Kew, near the Director's office, was in cultivation at 

 Paris about 1800 ; and possibly earlier in England, as Loudon mentions old trees at 

 Syon and other places near London. 



2. Two very remarkable graft hybrids 4 originated about 1885 m tne garden 

 of M. Dardar, at Bronvaux, near Metz ; and have been propagated by Simon-Louis. 

 On a very old medlar tree, that had been grafted on a stock of hawthorn, two peculiar 

 branches 6 were observed to arise just beneath the graft. One of these branches, 

 from which has been propagated the form known as Cratczgo-Mespilus Dardari? 

 differed from the medlar in the branches being spiny, and the flowers in corymbs ; while 

 the leaves and fruit were like those of the medlar but smaller. The other branch, 

 which has been propagated as Cratczgo-Mespilus Asnieresi, 6 was more like the haw- 

 thorn, the leaves being lobed and the flowers like Cratcegus monogyna in form and 

 arrangement ; but the branchlets and leaves were pubescent as in the medlar. 

 These two graft hybrids, which are now in cultivation at Kew, are said by Mr. 

 Bean 7 to be very different in appearance. The Asnieresi form has remained true to 

 type, and is a small tree of great elegance and beauty. The Dardari form, according 



1 Dtut. Dend. 230 (1893). 



2 Cf. Rev. Hort. lxxi. 470 (1899), where Dr. Gillot states that it resembles Mespilus more than Cratagus, and is of 

 undoubted hybrid origin. 3 There are several trees in the Green Park, London, and a fine one at Tortworth. 



* The history of these graft hybrids has been given by Simon-Louis and by Bellair in Revue Horticole, lxxi. 403, 482, 

 530 (1899) ; and by Koehne, in Gartenflora, 1. 628 (1901). R. P. Gregory, in Gard. Chron. 1. 185, fig. 86 (1911), gives 

 Baur's explanation of their anatomical structure. 



5 A third branch was subsequently produced on the original tree at Bronvaux, also from the junction of the stock and 

 scion ; but on the opposite side to that occupied by the first two branches. It had at its base pure hawthorn ; but was trans- 

 formed towards the extremity into the Asnieresi form. 



Jouin, in Lejardin, 1899, p. 22. f Bean, in Kew Bull. 1911, p. 268, figs. 1 and 2. 



