Pyrus.J XXVI. ROSACEA, 145 
XIII. PYRUS. PYRUS. 
Trees or shrubs, with entire or pinnately divided leaves, and showy 
flowers, either proceeding, with a few leaves, from buds or spurs on a 
former year’s wood, or in simple or branched corymbs at the ends of 
the year’s shoots. Calyx-tube adhering to the ovary, the limb with 
5 small divisions. Petals 5. Stamens numerous. Styles 5 or fewer. 
Fruit forming with the calyx a fleshy mass, divided in the centre into 
5 or fewer cells of a leathery or cartilaginous consistence, each cell 
containing one or two seeds or pips. 
A genus of several species, widely spread over the northern hemi- 
sphere, but chiefly in central Asia and southern Europe. This and the 
three following genera, although universally distinguished by modern 
botanists, are nevertheless separated only by characters of little im- 
portance and difficult to appreciate. The structure of the flowers 
is the same in all; the number of styles is variable, the distinction 
consists chiefly in the consistency of 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 from 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. MESPILUS. 
Calyx-segments small. Flowers several together. 
Flowers small, drooping. Leaves entire, white under- 
neath : . : a eets : i : . XVI. COTONEASTER. 
Flowers showy, erect. Leaves toothed. 
Styles combined at the base. Fruit globular . F . 2 P. Malus. 
Styles distinct. Fruit pear-shaped . . 1. P. communis. 
Flowers in branched corymbs. Leaves often cut or divided. 
Leaves simple, toothed, lobed, or pinnate at the base only. 
Leaves very white underneath, with a dense cotton . eS PeTAria: 
Leaves green or loosely hairy underneath. 
Leaves large, broad or almost cordate at the base, more 
or less pinnately lobed : 4. P. torminalis. 
Leaves narrowed or wedge-shaped at the base, 3- or 5- 
XV. CRATHGUS. 
obe 
Leaves pinnately divided to the midrib into sever ‘al pairs of 
distinct, nearly equal segments or leaflets : . 5. P. Aucuparia. 
Several others are cultivated in our gardens for their fruit or for orna- 
ment, especially the Quince (P. Cydonia), the P. japonica, the Siberian 
Crab (P. prunifolia), &c 
1. P. communis, Linn. (fig. 334). Pear-tree.—In favourable cir- 
cumstances the Pear will form a handsome tree of considerable eleva- 
tion, 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 scrubby 
tree or mere bush. Leaves stalked, ovate or obovate, simple, bordered 
with numerous small teeth, glabrous or loosely covered, when young, 
with a slight 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 distinct from 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 cultivated varieties. 
K 
