146 THE ROSE FAMILY. [Pyrus. 
nevertheless separated only by characters of little importance 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. Mmspiuvs. 
Calyx-segments small. Flowers several together. 
Flowers small, drooping. Leaves entire, white under- 
neath . : ; t ; : : ; - XVI. CoTONEASTER. 
Flowers showy, erect. Leaves toothed. 
Styles combined at the base. Fruit globular. ° . 2. P. Malus. 
Styles distinct. Fruit pear-shaped . : > : . Ll. 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 . . Bs ba ARs 
Leaves green or loosely hairy underneath. 
Leaves large, broad or almost cordate at the base, more 
or less pirnately lobed : ° : . : . 
are rieiaihes or wedge-shaped at the base, 3- or 5- 
obe J 4 j 4 : : A : 
Leaves pinnately divided to the midrib into several pairs of 
distinct, nearly equal segments or leaflets . 
4, P. torminalis. 
XV. CRATEHGUS. 
5. P. Aucuparia. 
Several others are cultivated in our gardens for their fruit or for 
ornament, especially the Quince (P. Cydonia), the scarlet Pear (P. 
japonica), the Siberian Crab (P. prunifolia), etc. 
1. P. communis, Linn. (fig. 333). Pear Pyrus, Pear-tree.—In 
favourable circumstances the Pear will form a handsome tree of consider- 
able elevation, 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. 
' In woods and hedgerows, in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, 
extending northwards into southern Sweden. Scattered over Britain, but. 
in so many instances escaped from cultivation, that it cannot be affirmed to 
be really indigenous. FU. spring. [P.cordata, Desv. (P. Briggsii, Syme), 
is a curious form found, apparently wild, in Cornwall, with more ovate 
leaves, and very small fruit. ] 
2, P. Malus, Linn. (fig. 334). Apple Pyrus, Crab- and Apple-trees.— 
The Apple-tree never grows to the height of the Pear, and assumes a 
more spreading shape. ‘The leaves are very nearly the same, but generally 
downy underneath, with a shorter and stouter stalk. The inflorescence is 
also the same, except that the peduncles issue from nearly the same point, 
instead of being arranged in a short raceme along a common axis; the 
