THE MEDLAR 



THE MEDLAR 



13 



or apple, usually with five cells, each more or 

 less completely divided into two parts so that 

 there appear to be ten cells. The pomes of 

 some species are no larger than a pea, while 

 in the best strains of other species they attain 

 the size of a small crab-apple. They vary in 

 color from dark red to a purplish-blue or black 

 and all have more or less bloom. The several 

 juneberries are exceedingly variable in their 

 fruits, suggesting high potentialities in the 

 domestication of the best of the wild species. 

 They differ much in the character of the plants, 

 some species being dwarf shrubs with many 

 stems, while others are small trees with 

 straight, slender trunks, the largest of which 

 attain a height of forty feet and a diameter 

 of eight or ten inches. All are hardy, and at 

 least two of them give promise of making most 

 desirable domesticated plants in regions too 

 cold for any, or but few, other fruits. June- 

 berries thrive under the same care as that 

 given the apple or pear. The genus shows 

 wide adaptation to soils and moisture condi- 

 tions; in temperate regions there are few lo- 

 calities where other fruits are grown in which 

 some one or several of the juneberries would 

 not thrive. 



Strains of several species have been brought 

 under cultivation, some of which have been 

 named and sparingly disseminated by nursery- 

 men. So far, all of the cultivated varieties 

 have come from the bush-like species, most 

 of them from A. alnifolia. One of the 

 first named sorts to be sent out was Success, 

 a dwarf strain probably of A. canadensis, in- 

 troduced by H. E. Van Deman, then of Kansas, 

 about 1878; this variety seems to be no longer 

 cultivated. Several western nurserymen now 

 offer strains of A. alnifolia under the names 

 Improved Dwarf Juneberry, Dwarf Mountain 

 Juneberry, and Western Huckleberry. These 

 named varieties are selected strains from wild 

 plants, no one as yet having set out to improve 

 juneberries. Then; are many distinct forms in 

 the wild, some of them supposed to be natural 

 hybrids, offering opportunities for selection in 

 the amelioration of the species for the garden. 

 There is no reason to believe that the species 

 will not hybridize as freely as other members 

 of the rose family. Juneberries are readily 

 propagated from seeds and no doubt all would 

 yield to budding and grafting. They are said 

 to be easily budded on the hawthorn. At 

 present, suckers are used in propagating the 

 species. 



THE MEDLAR 



The medlar, or mespil, is a small, handsome 

 tree belonging to the genus Mespilus which 

 bears edible fruits. The genus is closely re- 

 lated to Crataegus and Pyrus. It is separated 

 from Crataegus by its large flowers, which are 

 borne singly and have leaf-like sepals, and by 

 its stemless fruits. It differs from Pyrus, with 

 which it is sometimes classed, in bearing its 

 flowers singly on leafy shoots of the current 

 year's growth; in having an open-topped, over- 

 growing receptacle which does not cover the 



ovaries; and in its apparently stemless fruits. 

 There is but one species. 



Mespilus germanica, Linn. Medlar. Mespilus. Plant 

 a small tree attaining a height of 25 feet, sometimes 

 shrub-like, the wild plants thorny, cultivated varieties 

 thornless. Leaves simple, nearly sessile, oblong-lance- 

 olate or oblong, pubescent, serrate. Flowers large and 

 sessile on short, leafy shoots, white or pink, pubescent 

 outside; styles 5, glabrous and distinct. Fruit a round- 

 ish or top-shaped pome with the 5 leaf-like sepalt 

 persistent ; receptacle hollowed as in the apple and 

 pear, but not completely inclosing the carpels; the 5 

 carpels having a hard, bony wall protecting the single 

 seed within. 



At least two botanical varieties are named, 

 one a large-fruited form, and the other seedless, 

 both of which, from the descriptions given, 

 might well be considered pomological varieties. 

 The medlar is a native of Europe, being found 

 wild in many parts of central and southern 

 Europe and even in England, where, however, 

 it is probably an escape from cultivation. It 

 is thought to be indigenous to south-central 



4. Dutch Medlar. 



Europe eastward to the Caucasus. The medlar 

 is said to hybridize with the hawthorns. 



The medlar, it seems, held a much higher 

 place among fruits in the Middle Ages than 

 now. It was used as a preserve and to season 

 meats. The fruit was the foundation of the 

 famous preserve known in Orleans, France, as 

 cotignac, which was always offered a French 

 sovereign when he entered the town, and which 

 was the first present made to Joan of Arc when 

 she led her troops into that city. The fruit 

 is somewhat common in the markets of 

 France, very common in Germany, and some- 

 times is to be found on fruit-stalls in England. 

 Medlars are to be seen in many door-yard 

 plantations in the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 states in the United States, but are seldom 

 seen northward, although they are hardy as 

 far north as Geneva, New York. In parts of 

 Florida, the medlar is very common, being 

 used as a hedge-plant as well as a fruit-plant, 

 and is frequently found in a semi-wild state. 



When plants or seeds were first brought to 

 America is not known; American pomologies 

 and horticultural magazines give but scant and 

 fragmentary information on the subject. It 

 seems certain, however, that the plant has 



