ROSACEA. 



395 



not allowed the most recent authors to separate these from the 

 Pear family, in which they form sections that are not at all sharply 

 defined. 



Thus constituted, this genus includes about forty species, trees or 

 shrubs, from temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.' They 

 have alternate simple or pinnate caducous leaves, with two lateral 

 stipules. The flowers are grouped into corymbs," rarely few-flowered, 

 and either simple or composed of cymes (figs. 457, 402) ; each flower 

 is axillary to a usually caducous acute bract. 



The Quinces^ (Fr., Coffnassiers — figs. 463-465) have been referred 

 by very many authors to the Pear family, from which they differ 

 but very little.^ Their carpels, instead of containing two ascending 

 ovules, contain an indefinite number arranged in two vertical rows, 

 with their raphes towards each other. Hence the fruit is a berry, with 

 a thin endocarp and many-seeded cells. The fruit of C. vulgaris, the 

 quince (Fr., co'uig), is surmounted by a cal3'x of large unequal erect 

 leaves, and the flower is usually solitary terminal. In the Japan 

 Quince,* of which it has been proposed to make the separate genus 

 Ch£B)iomeIes,^ihQ flowers, which come out towards the end of the winter 



1 DC, loc. cit., 633-637.— ROXB., Fl. Ind., ii. 

 510.— LouB., Fl. Cochinch., 321.— Wall., PI. 

 As. Ear., t. 173, 189. — Koch, Ann. 3Ius. Lugd. 

 Bat., i. 248, 249. — MiQ., op. cit., iii. 40.— Toee. 

 & Ge., Fl. N. Amer., i. 470.— A. Geat, Man. of 

 Bot., ed. V. 161.— Chapm., Fl. S. Z^nit. -States, 

 128.— C. Gat, Fl. Chll., ii. 316.— Geen. & 

 GoDE., Fl. de Ft:, i. 570.— Hook., Fl. Bor.- 

 Amer., t. 68.— -Bo^. Eeg., t. 1437, 1482, 1484. 

 — Bot. Mag., t. 3668. — Walp., Rep., ii. 53 i 

 ^»«., i. 287; ii. 522; iv. 669. 



^ These peculiar branches or spurs, ending 

 in a large flow er-bearing bud (Fr., bourse), are 

 often thick and stumpy, only bearing a few leaves 

 below the flowers. But in some cases these twigs 

 are more elongated, and in the axil of each of 

 their upper leaves is a ramification of the in- 

 florescence, this being a cyme. The whple in- 

 florescence is a terminal raceme of cymes, often 

 vaguely described as a thyrse or panicle. 



^ Cydonia T., Inst., 632, t. 405.— Heist., De 

 Cydon., 1744.— Adans., Fam. des PL, ii. 296.- 

 J., Gen., 335.— G.EETX., Fruct., ii. 44, t. 87.— 

 Lamk., Diet., ii. 63; Suppl., ii. 426.— THoriN, 

 Ann. Mus., ix. t. 8, 9.— DC, Prodr., ii. 638.— 

 Spach, Suit, a Buffon, ii. 154. — Kxdl., Gen., n. 

 6341. 



•• The common Quince {Cydonia vulgaris 

 Pers., Enchir., ii. 40;— DC, Prodr., n. \,— C. 

 turopcea Sav., Alh. Tosc, i. 90; — Pyrus Cydo- 

 nia L., Spec, 687) has a subtubular i-cceptado. 



with sepals quincuncially imbricated in the young 

 bud, and then reflexed, not touching one another 

 at all at anthesis. The petals are nearly always 

 twisted in a'stivation. There arc fifteen to 

 twenty stamens, five alteruipetalous, and the rest 

 in groups of two or three, superposed to the petals. 

 In the bud, we find a deep groove between the 

 wall of the receptacle and the ovaries to re- 

 ceive the anthers, while the stamens are reflexed. 

 The ovaries are said to adhere externally to the 

 receptacle for a considerable extent; that is, 

 each is inserted on the inside of this sac by a 

 large oblique surface, corresponding with its 

 organic base. Internally the carpels are quite 

 free from each other. There are usually from 

 five to seven ovules in each row ; they have two 

 coats. The sepals persist on top of the fruit, and 

 are similar to the cauline leaves on a small scale. 

 These last are accompanied by two ciliate laciniate 

 stipules, contracted near tlieir attachment, while 

 the blade is unsymmetrical, projecting less on the 

 side towards the petiole. 



' C. japonica Peks., Enchir., ii. 40. — DC, 

 Prodr., r. 4. — C. speciosa GuiMP & Hayn., 

 Fremd. Eolz., t. 70. — C. lagenaria LoiS., Herb. 

 Amat., V. t. 67. — Malus japonica Andh., Bot. 

 Rep., t. 462. — Pyrus japonica Thuxb., Fl. Jap., 

 207. 



^ LiNDL., Trans. Linn. Soc, xiii. 97 ; Bot. 

 Reg., t. 905.— Spach, op. cit., 158. 



