148 THE ROSE FAMILY. 
XV. 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 Crataegus, except that the 
cells of the fruit form as many nuts, distinct from each other, but 
cohering to the inside of the fleshy calyx. 
The species are few, chiefly from eastern Europe, the Himalaya, or 
central Asia, with a few North American ones. 
1. C. vulgaris, Lindl. (fig. 340). Common C.— 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 cottony down. 
Leaves shortly stalked, small, ovate or orbicular, entire, glabrous on the 
- upper-side. Flowers greenish-white, small, solitary or few together, in 
short drooping racemes, on very short leafy branches or buds. Calyx 
glabrous, with short broad teeth. Styles usually 3. Fruit small, 
reddish. 
In rocky situations, chiefly in limestone regions, in central and 
southern, and especially eastern Europe, and in central and Russian 
Asia, extending to the Arctic Circle, and ascending high 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. 
XVI. MESPILUS. MEDLAR. 
A single species, distinguished as a genus from Crategus 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. M. germanica, Linn. (fig. 341). Common M.—A shrub or small 
tree, more or less thorny when wild, but losing its thorns in cultivation. 
Leaves undivided, nearly sessile, lanceolate or oblong, with very small 
teeth, usually downy, especially beneath. Flowers large, white or 
slightly pink, solitary and sessile on short 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 cells very 
slightly protrude. 
In hedges and thickets, common in southern Europe to the Caucasus, 
extending more or less into central Europe, but in many cases only as 
escaped from cultivation. In Britain, apparently wild in several 
localities in southern England, but probably not truly indigenous. 4. 
spring. 
The Calycanthus, occasionally planted in shrubberies, and Chimonan- 
thus, often trained against walls, belong to the small North American 
and Asiatic Calycanthus family, allied on the one hand to Rosacew, on 
the other to Magnoliacee. The common Myrtle, a south European shrub, 
is one of the very large tropical family of Myrtaceew, with the indefinite 
perigynous stamens of the Rosaceew, but with opposite leaves, and acom- 
_ pletely syncarpous inferior ovary. 
