148 THE ROSE FAMILY. [Cotoneaster. 



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 Cratcegus 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. FL 

 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 Fosacece, on 

 the other to Magnoliacece. The common Myrtle, a south European shrub, 

 is one of the very large tropical family of Myrtacece, with the indefinite 

 perigynous stamens of the Fosacece, but with opposite leaves, and a com- 

 pletely syncarpous inferior ovary. 



