ICOSANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Pyrus. SGI 



oblong, of 2 lobes. Genu, inferior, roundish. Styles 

 from 2 or 3 to 5, thread-shajied, about the length of the 

 stamens. Stigmas simple, or bhmtish. Apple roundish 

 or somewhat oblong, umbilicated, fleshy, of as many carti- 

 laginous or membranous bivalve cells as there are styles. 

 Seeds 2 in each cell, erect, obovate, flattened at one side. 



Trees, generally without thorns. Leaves alternate, stalked, 

 simple or pinnate, entire or sen-ated. Fl. white or reddish, 

 corymbose, umbellate, or panicled. Fniit acid and austei'e, 

 greatly improved by culture, very various in size, colour 

 and figure. 



Gaertner first ventured to unite the above Linnsean genera, 

 including the Quince, Cydonia j but the latter having 

 very numerous horizontal seeds, may perhaps form a ge- 

 nus along with Pyrus japonica, whose fruit being erro- 

 neously described by Thunberg, as having 5 valves, 

 caused Mr. Lindley to make it distinct. But this fruit 

 is no more valvular than an apple, and greatly resembles 

 a quince in odour. The cells of the fruit in Pyrus vary, 

 even in one species, the common Pear, from cartilaginous to 

 membranous, and gradations in texture from one species 

 to another are so insensible, that they baffle all generic 

 distinction. The bony cells of Mespilus, each of one 

 piece, and not splitting asunder, perhaps sufficiently mark 

 that c;enus. 



o^ 



1 . P. communis. Wild Pear-tree. Iron Pear. 



Leaves simple, ovate, serrated. Flower-stalks corymbose. 



P. communis. Unn. Sp. PI. 686. mild. v. 2. 1016. Fl. Br. 531. 



Engl. Bot. V. 25. t. 1 784. Ehrli. Arh. 64, 

 P. Achras. Gcertn. v. 2. 44. t. 87. 

 P. n. 1096. Hall. Hist. V. 2.35. 

 P. sylvestris. Dod. Pempt. 800./. Bauh. Pin. 439. 

 Pyrum strangiilatoiium majus. Ger. Em. 1457./. 

 Pyra. Camer. Epit. 152./ 

 Pyraster, seu Pyrus sylvestris. Rail Syn. 452. 



In woods and hedges. 



Tree. April, May. 



A tall handsome tree ; the branches first erect, then curved down- 

 wards, and pendulous ; in a truly wild state thorny. Leaves 

 ovate, or elliptic-oblong ; when young downy beneath, and co- 

 piously fringed with soft white hairs ; smooth and shinmg when 

 at their full growth, deciduous. They lose their serratures by 

 culture. Slipulas linear, soon falling. Flower-stalks terminal, 

 downy, corymbose. Fl. copious, snow-white, with pnik anthers. 



