246 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Captain Stedman, in his expedition to Surinam, speaks 

 of some medlars which were of a crimson colour, and in 

 taste resembled strawberries*. 



Chaucer describes a goldfinch eating the blossoms of 

 the medlar : 



" And as I stood and cast aside mine eye, 

 I was ware of the fairest medler tree 

 That ever yet in all my life I sie. 

 As full of blossomes as it might be. 

 Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile 

 From bough to bough ; and, as him list;, he eet 

 Here and there of buds and floures sw^eet." 



The Flower and the Leaf. 



Mr. Miller describes the Wild Medlar as a different 

 species, a native of Sicily, where, he says, it becomes a 

 large tree, and grows with a straight stem, and that the 

 leaves, flowers, and fruit are smaller than those of the 

 Dutch Medlar. 



The Bastard Quince, Mespilus Cha?nce-mespihis, which 

 some botanists consider as a pyrus, grovv^s five feet high ; 

 the leaves have a yellowish tinge ; the fruit is small, and 

 red. It is a native of the Pyrenees, the mountains of 

 Austria, the higher parts of Jura, the neighbourhood of 

 Geneva, &c. It was cultivated by Mr. J. Sutherland in 

 1683, and blossoms in May. 



The Japan Mespilus, or Loquat, M. Jajjonica, which 

 some of the most modern botanists have removed out of 

 the genus and placed by itself, under the name of Chct^- 

 7ioineles Japonica^ is a large and lofty tree ; the taste of 

 the fruit is something like that of an apple. It blossoms 

 in May and June, 



* Vol. ii. p. r/8. 



