Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



Japanese Quince is the bee Anthophora pilipes, and 

 this may often be seen poising on the cluster of styles 

 and guiding its fine long proboscis along one of 

 them to the nectary, which it can easily reach. The 

 stigmas are mature a little before the stamens, and 

 either the pollen-seeking hive bees or the nectar- 

 sucking Anthophora pilipes usually effect cross-fertilisa- 

 tion, or even self-fertilisation as the flower grows older 

 and stamens and styles are functioning together. Each 

 little group of flowers or " infloresence " lasts three 

 to four weeks, an individual flower ten days to a 

 fortnight. 



Though most of the flowers are fertilised in this 

 country, not all the fruit ripens. This is especially the 

 case if the water supply is at all scanty. An apple- 

 like fruit, it is of full size when about two inches in 

 diameter in September, and by October, when it falls, 

 is fragrant, waxy-coated and a golden-yellow, but 

 inedible, though sometimes made into a not very 

 successful preserve. A number of ovoid seeds are 

 embedded in the hard flesh. As all the fruits neces- 

 sarily fall just below the tree, it is suggested that 

 pigs might perhaps be Nature's agents intended to 

 take the fruit from the ground and thus disperse the 

 seeds. 



Many beautiful varieties of the Japanese Quince are 



known, their chief distinction lying in the colour 



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