3ir2 



NATUBAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



VT. PEAR SERIES. 



The Pears' (Fr., Poir'wrs — lig-s. 457-462) have regular hermaphro- 

 ilite Howers.* Their receptacle has the same shape, like a pouch or 

 «,'..iird, as ill the Hoses,' and on its edges are inserted the perianth 



Pyrus communis {Pear). 



Fig. 457. 

 Flowering branch. 



and androceum. The sepals are five in number, free, and quin- 

 cuncially imbricated in the bud. The imbricated, shortly unguicu- 

 late petals are of the same number as the sepals, and alternate with 

 tlieni. The stamens are twenty in number, or upwards; if twenty, 

 tliey are arranged like those of Spirfsa, Frag aria, &c. (fig. 459).^ 



' Purxu T., Imld., 628, t. 104.— L., Qen., n. 

 H2r,.— Adans., Fam. des PL, ii. 296.— J., Gen., 

 3.S."). — U.»:rtn., Fruct., ii. 44, t. 87. — Lamk., 

 Diet., V. 4.'i0 ; Suppl., iv. 151 ; III., t. 435.— 

 LiNDL., Trans. Linn. Soc, xiii. 97. — DC, 

 Prodr., ii. 633.— Spach, Suit, a Buff., i. 109.— 

 Kndl., Gen., n. 6342. — Payer, O'rganop., 499, 

 t. lii. fig. 35.--H. H., Gen., 626, n. 63 (incl. 

 Pifrophorum Neck., Api/rop/iorum Neck., Aza- 

 rolu.iVx.i-, Lazarolus Medik., Ilalmia Mebik , 

 Aria L., Torminaria DC, Aucuparia Medik., 

 .Sorhus T., Cormus Spach, Malus T.). 



- Tliey here and there become unisexual 

 through the abortion of the gynreceum. 



^ But usually less constricted in the neck. 



'' Generally the stamens of the three whorls of 

 the icosandrous androceum long remain of unequal 

 sizes, and even in flower-buds of a good age we may 

 easily perceive that the five stamens superposed 

 to the sepals are shortest, and that the longest 

 correspond with the median lines of the petals, 

 while the stamens on each side of these are of 

 middle size. The oppositiscpalous stamens are 

 often deduplicated. 



