690 COIONEASTER. LCLASS XII. ORDER II. 



With lichens to the very top, 



And hung with heavy tufts of moss 



A melancholy crop: 



Up from the earth these mosses creep, 



And this poor Thorn they clasp it round 



So close, you'd say that they were bent 



With plain and manifest intent, 



To drag it to the ground. 



And all had joined in one endeavour 



To bury this poor Thorn for ever.'' 



It is not, however, in the spring alone that the Thorn charms us with 

 its blossoms, or regales us with its scents, but its cheerful foliage lines 

 our rural lanes through all the summer mouths, and then its autumnal 

 fruit hangs in many a rosy cluster, furnishing food to numerous 

 birds during the winter. The wood is hard, tough, and close 

 grained, useful for many purposes, but it is of slow growth, and of no 

 great size. Many of the exotic species are now coming into more 

 general cultivation, and several from their great beauty and elegance 

 will, no doubt, become favourite shrubs for lawns and open plantations. 



The C. Azorolus, Linn, is common in Italy, and the fruit, which 

 has a dry sweetish fleshy pulp, is sold in considerable quantities in the 

 markets, and appears to be esteemed as a dessert fruit. 



GENUS V. COTONEA'STER.— LiND. Cotoneaster. 



Nat. Ord. Rosa'ce^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx with five short teeth. Petals five, small, erect. 

 Fruit turbinate, with the nuts adhering to the sides of the calyx, 

 but the ends free. — Named from Cotoneum, the Quince. 



1. C. vulga'ris, Lindl. (Fig. 786.) Common Cotoneaster. Leaves 

 ovate, rounded at the base ; calyx and peduncles smooth. 



Lindley, Synopsis, p. 104. — Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. 1. p. 

 196. — Mespilus Cotoneaster, Linn. — English Botany, Suppl. t. 2713. — 

 English Flora, vol. ii. p. 360. 



A small bush, with alternate spreading branches, the bark smooth, 

 brown, pale and downy towards the extremities. Leaves numerous, 

 alternate, ovate, rounded at the base, entire, on short footstalks, green 

 and smooth above, pale and woolly beneath, with a straight mid-rib 

 and branched lateral veins. Stipules in pairs, linear, tapering, smooth, 

 with a fringed margin, of a reddish colour. Flotvers solitary, or several 

 together in a cymose manner, arising from the same spur as the leaves, 

 on short peduncles, smooth or downy. Bracteas small, red, lanceolate, 

 acute. Calyx turbinate, with a five cleft limb, of ovate incurved seg- 

 ments, very woolly on the margins. Petals five, small, orbicular, erect, 

 pink. Stamens with erect awl-shaped ^/o?ncn<s, as long as the teeth of 



