PYRUS CYDONIA, yel CYDONIA VULGARIS. THE QUINCE TREE. 
Class XII. ICOSANDRIA.— Order IV. PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order, POMACES. THE APPLE TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) section of the fruit ; ( b ) a seed. 
The Quince-tree is a native of the rocky banks of the Danube, and is naturalized in the hedges of Ger- 
many. Dr. Sibthorp found it wild in the northern parts of Greece, in which country it still retains the 
ancient name so called from Cydon, a town in Crete, where it grew. Thunberg found it growing in 
Japan, where it is called umbats. It was among the first of the exotic fruits cultivated in England, where 
it blossoms in May or June, and ripens its fruit in November. 
The tree is of low growth, much branched, and generally distorted. The leaves are roundish or ovate, 
entire, varying in size, smooth, and of a dusky green colour above, paler and downy beneath, and stand 
upon short foot-stalks. The flowers are large, solitary, and of a pale rose-colour, or white; the calyx is 
superior, villous, persistent, and divided into five spreading segments: the corolla is composed of five 
petals; these are concave, roundish, and inserted into the calyx: the filaments are about twenty, awl-shaped, 
shorter than the corolla, and support yellow anthers: the germen is orbicular, with five slender styles, and 
simple stigmas. The fruit is large, varying in shape, yellow, downy, umbilicated, and when ripe has a 
peculiar fragrant odour, and a very austere acidulous taste; each of its cells contains two or three ovate ? 
angular, reddish brown, cartilaginous seeds, ranged horizontally. 
There are different varieties of the fruit: as the globular, or apple-quince; oblong, or Portugal quince; 
and the pear-shaped, or pear-quince. The Portugal quince is the best, but the fruit is produced sparingly. 
The quince-tree is propagated by layers, by suckers, or by cuttings. It thrives best in a moist soil, but the 
fruit is superior in a dry one. The quince is supposed by some persons to be the golden apple of the Hes- 
perides, so famous in ancient fable. 
From the largeness of this fruit, and its splendid colour, it is not improbable that it was the same with 
the apples of the Hesperides ; for Galesio, in his treatise on the orange, has shewn that the orange tree 
was unknown to the Greeks, and that it did not naturally grow in those parts where the gardens of the 
Hesperides were placed by them. The fruit of the quince, however useful and ornamental it may he in 
some respects, does not warrant such honours, and in truth has not continued to receive them ; for the 
French, who have paid great attention to its cultivation, particularly for grafting pears upon its stocks, call 
the quince-tree “ coignassier,” probably, according to Duhamel, because the disagreeable odour of the fruit 
requires that it should be placed in a corner (coin) of the orchard or garden. In the south of France, particu- 
larly on the borders of the Garonne, the quince is very extensively grown ; and the peasants prepare from 
it a marmalade which they call cotignac. The term marmalade is derived from the Portugese name for the 
quince, marmelo. Gerard says, that in his time quince-trees were planted in the hedges of gardens and vine- 
yards ; and marmalade, two centuries ago, seems to have been in general use, principally from a belief that 
it possessed valuable medicinal properties. 
Qualities and Uses — The seeds are inodorous, nearly insipid, and abound with an impure muci- 
lage, which they yield to boiling water. One drachm makes six ounces of a nearly colourless transparent 
mucilage, resembling in consistency the white of egg; which is occasionally prescribed as a demulcent in 
gonorrhoea, tenesmus, dysentery, and in apthous affections and excoriations of the mouth and fauces; in the 
latter case it is generally combined with borax and honey. A diluted solution of it injected beneath the 
eye-lids is recommended by Dr. Thompson, for obtunding the acrimony of the discharge in violent inflam- 
mations of the eye. It is the most agreeable of all the mucilages ; but is apt to spoil and become mouldy 
in a short time. 
In its raw state the fruit is not eatable ; but when prepared, it becomes mild, and to many persons 
