ONAGRACEiE. 205 



cottony dovra. Leaves shortly stalked, small, ovate or orbicular, and entire, 

 glabrous on the upper side. Flowers greenish-white, small, sohtary or few- 

 together, in short drooping racemes, on very short leafy branches or buds. 

 Calyx glabrous, witli short broad teeth. Styles usually 3. Fruit small, 

 reddish. 



In rocky situations, chiefly in limestone regions, in central and southern, 

 and esjaeoiaUy eastern Europe, and in central and Kussian Asia, ascendhig 

 liigli up into mountain ranges, even to the edges of glaciers. In Britain, 

 only known on the limestone cliffs of the Great Orme's Head. Fl. spring. 



XVII. 1XIEDI.AR. MESPILUS. 



A single species, distinguished as a genus from Haicthorn on account of 

 its large flowers, with more foliaceous divisions to the calyx, and of its fruit, 

 of which the bony cells are more exposed at the top of the fruit, and more 

 readily separable from each other. 



1. Common Sledlar. Mespilus germanica, Luin. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1523.) 



A shrub or small tree, more or less thorny when wild, but losing its 

 thorns in cultivation. Leaves uncUvided, nearly sessile, lanceolate or ob- 

 long, with very small teeth, usually downy, especially on the under side. 

 Flowers large, white or shghtly pink, sohtary and sessile on sliort leafy 

 branches. Styles glabrous and distinct, usually 5. Fruit nearly globular 

 or pear-shaped, crowned by a broad hairy disk, from whence the 5 bony ceUs 

 very slightly protrude. 



In hedges and thickets, common in southern Europe to the Cavicasus, ex- 

 tending more or less into central Europe, but in many cases only as escaped 

 from cultivation. In Britain, apparently wild hi several locaUties in southern 

 England, but probably not truly indigenous. Fl. spring. 



The Calycanthus, occasionally planted in shrubberies, and CMmonanthv.s, 

 often trained against walls, belong to the small North American and Asiatic 

 Calycanthus family, alhed on the one hand to the Rose family, on the other 

 to the Magnolia family. The common Myrtle, a south European slu-ub, is 

 one of the very large tropical Myrtle family, with the indefinite perigynous 

 stamens of the Rosacea, but with opposite leaves, and a completely syncar- 

 pcus inferior ovary. 



XXVI. THE (ENOTHERA FAMILY. 0NAGEACEJ3. 



Herbs, or, in some exotic genera, shrubs, with the leaves, 

 especially the lower ones, frequently opposite, almost always 

 undivided (except when immersed in water), and toothed, 

 without stipules. Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes, or 

 the lower ones solitary in the axils of the leaves. Calyx-tube 

 adhering to the ovary, sometimes prolonged considerably above 

 it ; the limb of 4 or sometimes 2 lobes, not overlapping each 



