202 THE HOSE FAMILY. 



the lining of the cells of the ripe fruit. In Pyrus it is cartilaginous or 

 leathery, so that the fruit can be cut across with a knife ; in the three 

 other genera the cells are hard and bony, and tend to separate fi-om each 

 other into distinct nuts. The following analytical Table includes the British 

 species of all four. 



Flowers solitary or few together, in simple bunches. Leaves 

 undivided. 

 Calyx-segments long and leafy. Flowers solitary, sessile . . XVII. Medlae. 

 Calyx-segments small. Flowers several together. 

 Flowers small, drooping. Leaves entire, white underneath . XVI. Cotoneastee. 

 Flowers showy, erect. Leaves toothed. 



Styles combined at the base. Fruit globular 2. Applet. 



Styles distinct. Fruit pear-shaped 1. I'ear P. 



Flowers in branched corymbs. Lea^ es often cut or divided. 

 Leaves simple, toothed, lobed, or pinnate at the base only. 



Leaves very white underneath, with a dense cotton .... 3. Seam P. 

 Leaves green or loosely hairy underneath. 



Leaves large, broad or almost cordate at the base, more or 



less pinnately lobed 4. Cut-leaved P. 



Leaves narrowed or wedge-shaped at the base, 3- or 5-lobed XV, Hawthohn". 

 Leaves pinnately divided to the midrib into several pairs of dis- 

 tinct, nearly equal segments or leaflets 5. Mowan P. 



Several others are cultivated in our gardens for their ft nit or for orna- 

 ment, especially the Quince (P. Cj/donia), the scarlet Pear (P.Japonica), 

 the Siberian Crab {P. prunifolia), etc. 



1. Pear Pyrus. Pyrus communis^ Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1784. Pear-tree.) 



In favourable circumstances the Pear will form a handsome tree of con- 

 siderable elevation, of a somewhat pyramidal shape, with dense foliage, and 

 showing all its flowers on the outside ; but it may often be seen as a low 

 scrubbj tree or mere bush. Leaves stalked, obovate, simple, bordered with 

 numerous small teeth, glabrous or loosely covered, when young, with a shght 

 down. Flowers rather large, of a pure white, on pedicels of about an inch 

 long, in very short racemes or bunches of 6 to 10, on the wood of a former 

 year. Divisions of the calyx narrow and pointed. Styles long, and dis- 

 tinct fi'om the base. The fruit is so well known as to have given its name to 

 the peculiar shape it retains through nearly the whole of its numerous cul- 

 tivated varieties. 



In woods and hedgerows, in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, 

 extending northwards into southern Sweden. Scattered over Britain, but 

 in so many instances escaped from cultivation, that it cannot be affirmed 

 to be really indigenous. Fl. spring. 



2. Apple Pyrus. Pyrus Malus, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 179. Crab and Apple trees.) 



The Apple-tree never grows to the height of the Pear, and assumes a 

 more spreading shape. The leaves are very nearly the same, but generally 

 downy underneath, with a shorter and stouter stalk. The inflorescence is 

 also the same, except that the peduncles issue from nearly the same point, 

 instead of being arranged in a short raceme along a common axis ; the divi- 

 sions of the calyx are broader and downy, the flowers often assume a pinkish 

 hue, the styles are shortly united at the base, and the fruit is nearly glo- 

 bular, and flat or hollowed at the base by the stalk. 



As widely spread as the Pear-tree over Europe and western Asia, it ex- 

 tends further northward into Scandinavia. Equally scattered over Britain, 



