106 PYRUS CYDONIA 



times apple-shaped, more usually pyriform, bright golden yellow, 

 very fragrant, crowned with the persistent leafy calyx- segments ; 

 flesh yellowish ; endocarp cartilaginous, surrounding the cells. 

 Seeds about 12 or 14 in each cell, somewhat coherent and flattened 

 by mutual pressure, pointed at the hilum, and marked on one side 

 at the other end by the chalaza, with a ridge, the raphe, connecting 

 these two points ; testa brown, cartilaginous, covered with an epi- 

 dermal layer of a single row of cylindrical cells, which swell up into 

 a mucilage if treated with water ; embryo entirely filling the seed, 

 cotyledons large, radicle prominent, pointing to the hilum. 



Habitat. The native country of the quince is doubtful, but, like 

 so many other fruits, it appears to be wild in some of the 

 Caucasian provinces, Persia and Asia Minor. It was very anciently 

 cultivated, and is now found apparently wild throughout the Mediter- 

 ranean region, and in gardens in all temperate parts of Europe, 

 and many parts of Asia and America. It produces fruit abun- 

 dantly in the South of England. 



Cydonia as a genus differs from Pyrus (in which it is now 

 usually included) only in the cells of the fruit containing numerous 

 seeds instead of two. Four species are known. The structure of 

 the seed-coat is figured in Berg's ' Characteristik ' quoted above. 



DC. Prod., ii, p. 638; Boiss, Fl. Orient., ii, p. 656; Wenzig in 

 Linnaea, xxxviii (1873), p. 7; Gren. & Godr., FL France, i, p. 

 569; LindL, Fl. Med., p. 234. 



Official Part and Name. CYDONITJM. The seed (U. S. P. 

 Secondary). Not ofiicial in the British Pharmacopoeia, or the 

 Pharmacopoeia of India. 



Commerce. Quince seeds are imported into England from the 

 South of France, from the Cape of Good Hope, and from Ham- 

 burg, where they are known as Eussian quince seeds. They are 

 largely imported into India from the Persian Gulf, and by land 

 from Affghanistan. 



General Characters and Composition. Quince seeds of commerce 

 are flattened, ovate, acute, more or less angular, and mahogany or 

 reddish-brown in colour. They have no odour, and only a simply 



