'204 THE ROSE FAMILY. 



districts and at liigh latitudes, where it shrinks into a stunted shrub. Ge- 

 nerally distributed over Britain in a wild state, besides being much planted. 

 Fl. spring or early summer. The cultivated Service-tree (Pyrus domestica, 

 Eng. Bot. t. 350) has precisely the foliage of the Roioan P., of which it is 

 believed by some to be a mere variety produced by cultivation. The flowers 

 are rather larger and the styles often woolly, but the only real distinction is 

 in the fruit, which is very much larger, assuming the form of a little pear. 

 It has been inserted in British Floras on the strength of a single tree in the 

 forest of Wyre, near Bewdiey, which has, however, been shown to have been 

 in all probability planted there. 



XV. HATVTHORW. CRAT^GUS. 



Shrubs, seldom growing into trees, mostly armed with stout thorns formed 

 of abortive branches, and differing from Pyrus only m the hard bony con- 

 sistence of the cells of the fruit. 



The genus is, like Pyrus, spread over the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, but the species are more nu.merous in North America than in 

 Europe and Asia. Among those most frequently (jjiltivated in our shrub- 

 beries and gardens are tlie C. -pyracantha from south-eastern Eui'ope, and 

 the C. Crus-galli, and some other North American ones. The evergreen 

 C. glabra, from China, now forms the genus Photinia. 



1. Common Havirtliom. Crataegus Oxyacantha, Linn. 



{Mespilus, Eng. Bot. t. 2504. Hawthorn. May. Whitethorn^ 

 A thorny shrub or small tree, glabrous or more or less downy on the 

 calyxes and young foliage. Leaves stalked, narrowed at the base, and more 

 or less divided upwards into 3 or 5 lobes or segments, which are irregularly 

 toothed or even lobed. Flowers white or pink, sweet-scented, in sessile co- 

 rymbs on short leafy branches. Petals broad. Styles 1, 2, or 3. Fruit 

 red, globular or ovoid, crowned by the short divisions of the calyx, and con- 

 taining a hard, bony, 1- or 2-celled nut, each cell with a single seed. 



In woods, thickets, and hedges, tlu-oughout Europe and central and Rus- 

 sian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in Britain, and universally 

 cultivated for artificial hedges. Fl. spring or early summer. It varies much 

 in the form of its leaves, the down of its foUage and calyx, the number of 

 styles, and the cplour and size of the flower and fruit. 



XVI. COTONEASTER. COTONEASTER. 



Shrubs, with leaves usually small and entire, and rather small flowers, 

 either solitary on short peduncles, or 4 or 5 together in short drooping 

 racemes ; the generic characters those of Hawthorn, except that the cells 

 of the fruit form as many nvTts, distinct from each other, but cohering to 

 the inside of the fleshy calyx. 



The species are few, chiefly from eastern Europe or central Asia, with a 

 few North American ones. 



1. Common Cotoneaster. Cotoneaster vulgaris, Lindl. 

 (Eng. Bot. SupiDl. t. 2713.) 

 An irregularly growing, tortuous shrub, with a dark-ruddy bark; the 

 young shoots and under side of the leaves covered with a short, dense, white 



