Pyrus.] 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. Mowers solitary, sessile . XVII. Mespilus. 

 Calyx-segments small. Flowers several together. 

 Flowers small, drooping. Leaves entire, white under- 

 neath XVI. COTONEASTER. 



Flowers showy, erect. Leaves toothed. 

 Styles combined at the base. Fruit globular . . . 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 . . 3. P. Aria. 

 Leaves green or loosely hairy underneath. 

 Leaves large, broad or almost cordate at the base, more 



or less pinnately lobed LP. torminalis. 



Leaves narrowed or wedge-shaped at the base, 3- or 5- 



lobed XV. Crat^gus. 



Leaves pinnately divided to the midrib into several 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 



