THE WHITE BEAM IH 



angust'ifolia, rotund'ifolia, and bulld'ta, which differ 

 from the type merely in the minor characters of the 

 leaves which their names indicate, there are six or 

 seven forms occurring wild in the British Isles, and 

 presenting features so much more marked as to 

 deserve some further description. 



Pyrus rupic'ola Syme, described fyom exception- 

 ally exposed situations, may he merely a depauperate 

 form ; but it has a smaller fruit than the type, and its 

 leaves not only differ in form, being obovate, deeply 

 lobed in their upper halves and narrower and entire 

 below, but have their secondary veins reduced to from 

 five to eight pairs. 



P. rotundifolia, Bechst., the P. latifo'lia Syme, 

 seems a very distinct form, recognised on the Contin- 

 ent as the " Elorsier,". " Alisier h, larges feuilles," or 

 " Alisier de Fontainebleau." It occurs in the Vosges 

 and in Germany, and has been considered a hybrid 

 between P. Aria and P. torminalis ; but it occurs 

 in South-west Devon, where P. Aria does not, and its 

 seeds are perfectly fertile. It forms a small tree, from 

 eighteen to thirty or even fifty feet in height, and 

 sometimes over four feet in girth, with broad, ovate- 

 oblong or sub-orbicukr lobed leaves having from five 

 to nine pairs of secondary veins and a grey felt on 

 their under-sides. The flowers have a remarkably 

 sickly and disagreeable smell. The two styles are hairy 

 at the base. ' The globose fruits -may exceed half an 

 inch in diameter, and are at first olive-brown with 

 lighter dots ; hut by October or November become 

 reddish, though never so decidedly so as P.- Aria. 

 Their flesh becomes an apricot-yellow. 



