NAT. ORDER. 
Pomacece 
PYRUS CYDONA. COMMON QUINCE TREE. 
Class XII. IcosANDRiA. Order IV. Pentagynia. 
Geji. Char. Calyx, five-cleft. Petals, five. Pome, inferior, five- 
celled, many seeded. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, purplish, entire. Flowers, solitary. 
The Quince tree seldom rises very high, and is generally crooked 
and very much distorted ; it sends off" numerous branches, and is 
covered with a brown bark ; the leaves are simple, roundish or oval, 
entire, on the upper side of a dusky green color, on the under whit- 
ish, and stand upon short footstalks ; the flowers are large, solitary, 
of a pale red or white color, and placed close to the axillee of the 
leaves ; the calyx is composed of one leaf, aiid divided into five 
spreading oval notched segments ; the corolla consists of five petals ; 
these are large, convex, roundish, and notched at their extremities ; 
\he filaments are about twenty, tapering, shorter than the corolla, 
inserted into the calyx, and furnished with simple anthers ; the 
germen is orbicular ; the styles are five, slender, nearly of the length 
of the filaments, and supphed with simple stigmas ; the fruit is of the 
apple kind, and divided at the centre into five membraneous 
cells, containing the seeds, which are oblong, angular, pointed at 
one end, obtuse at the other, on one side compressed, on the other 
flat, and covered with a brownish pelhcle. It is a native of Austria, 
and flowers in May and June. 
It appears from Pliny, that the malus Cydonia of the Greeks was, 
originally, brought from Cydon, in Crete ; hence the name Cydona. 
At present, the Quince tree is known to grow wild on the banks of 
the Danube, though in a much less luxuriant state than when culti- 
vated in our gardens, as may be found in almost every section of 
Vol. U.— 163 
