1S75. ] 
CYDONIA MAULEI. 
49 
CYDONIA MAULEI. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
NDER the name of Pyrus Maulei , this fine hardy deciduous shrub has been 
described by Dr. Masters, ( Gard . Chron. 1874, i., 757 ; ii., 740), from 
specimens communicated by its introducers, Messrs. Maule and Sons, of 
Bristol, to whom we also are indebted for the examples represented in the 
accompanying plate. It is a native of Japan, and was first publicly made known 
by Messrs. Maule, on the occasion of the visit of the Royal Horticultural Society 
to Bath, in June, 1873, when a drawing of the plant, with samples of the conserve 
made from its fruit, was shown under the name of a Japanese species of Crataegus 
or Pyrus , and received a First-class Certificate. Subsequently, in May, 1874, 
examples of the plant in the flowering stage were sent to the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
for description, and to our artist for illustration, and in October last, abundant 
samples of the ripe fruit were exhibited at South Kensington by Messrs. Maule. 
Cydonia Maulei may be described as a moderate-sized shrub, with spreading, 
cylindrical, brownish-barked branches, often ending in a sharp spine, the bark 
being thickly studded with small lenticels. The leaves are subcoriaceous, glabrous, 
crenate, spathulate, tapering at the base into a short, channeled, narrowly-winged 
petiole, which is furnished with minute deciduous stipules. The flowers are sub- 
sessile, or very shortly stalked, in dense axillary fascicles, each 1^ in. or more in 
diameter; the flower-tube is funnel-shaped, glabrous ; the calyx-lobes are rounded 
and ciliate at the edges; the petals are orange-red, spreading, boat-shaped, oblong- 
spathulate, obtuse, tapering at the base into a short claw; the stamens number 
about twenty, with glabrous filaments; and the styles are one-fourth longer than 
the stamens, glabrous, in separate below, but dividing at about half their length 
into five linear branches, each terminated by a capitate stigma. The yellow fruit is 
roundish, slightly depressed both at the eye and stalk, and bluntly but indistinctly 
ribbed, while the five-celled interior contains numerous seeds or pips. 
The affinity of this charming plant is obviously with Cydonia japonica , the 
Japan Quince, one of the most ornamental of flowering shrubs, but it differs from 
that well-known species in the form of its leaves, and in the structure of its flowers 
and fruits. Mr. Maule informs us that it will not take when grafted on the pear ? 
but will do so on the apple, and also on the thorn. 
As a hardy ornamental deciduous flowering shrub, this plant has few equals, 
its brightly-coloured flowers being so abundant and so remarkably effective. 
They are freely produced early in May, and as we learn from Mr. Maule, the 
plants go on blooming without intermission till June, so that in the event of frosty 
weather, there is always a succession of blossoms some of which must escape in¬ 
jury. Hence being developed later in the season than those of Cydonia japonica , 
they are much less liable to suffer from spring frosts, and this circumstance 
not only ensures their longer continuance in beauty as objects of ornament, 
but is also more favourable to the production of a crop of fruit. This fruit, as 
3rd series,— yjii, F 
