ROSACEA. 



257 



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 pedi- 

 cels 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 nume- 

 rous cultivated varieties. 



In woods and hedgerows, in the tem- 

 perate regions of Europe and Asia, ex- 

 tending northwards into southern Swe- 

 den. Scattered over Britain, but in so 

 many instances escaped from cultivation, 

 that it cannot be affirmed to be really indigenous 



/*;> 



Fig. 328. 

 Fl. spring. 



2. Apple Pyrus. Pyrus Malus, Linn. (Fig. 329.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 179. 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 com- 

 mon axis ; the divisions of the calyx are 

 broader and downy, the flowers often 

 assume a pinkish hue, the styles are 

 shortly united at the base, and the fruit 

 i3 nearly globular, and flat or hollowed 

 at the base by the stalk. 



As widely spread as the Pear-tree 

 over Europe and western Asia, it ex- 

 tends further northward into Scandi- 

 navia. Equally scattered over Britain, but with more probability of 

 its being a true native. FL spring. In a wild state it produces the 



Fig. 329. 



