ÇOTONEA'STER *.

Linnean Class and Order. IcosA'NDRIA†, DI-TRIGY'NIA. Natural Order. POMA'CEE, Linn.-Lindl. in Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. xiii. p. 93.; Syn. p. 103.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 83.Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. ii. p. 597.-ROSA CEE; tribe, POMA'CEE, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 333.-Sin. Gram. of Bot. pp. 171 and 172.-Rich. by Macgilliv. pp. 528 & 530.-Loud. Hort. Brit. pp. 512 & 513.-Hook. Brit. Fl. (4th edit.) p. 405.-ROSALES; subtype, PYRIDE, Burn. Outl. of Bot. v. ii. pp. 614 & 695.

GEN. CHAR. Flowers polygamous, (i. e. some perfect and some barren on the same tree).-Calyx (fig. 1.) turbinate, with 5 short, egg-shaped teeth. Corolla (see fig. 2.) of 5, small, upright, nearly orbicular, concave petals (see fig. 3.), attached to the rim of the calyx. Filaments (see figs. 1 & 4.) 16 or more, upright, the length of the teeth of the calyx. Anthers roundish, 2-lobed. Germen (see fig. 1.) roundish. Styles 2 or 3, sometimes 4, smooth, shorter than the stamens. Fruit (see figs. 6 & 7.) turbinate, or pear-shaped, with its nuts (see figs 7 & 8.) adhering to the inside of the calyx, but not cohering in the centre.

The polygamous flowers; the turbinate, 5-toothed calyx; the corolla of 5, small, upright petals; and the turbinate fruit, with its nuts adhering to the inside of the calyx, but not cohering in the centre; will distinguish this from other genera in the same class and order.

One species British.

COTONEA'STER VULGAʼRIS. Common Cotoneaster. Dwarf Quince-leaved Medlar.

SPEC. CHAR. Leaves oval, entire, rounded at the base, downy beneath, deciduous. Calyx smooth. Peduncles slightly downy.

Engl. Bot. Suppl. t. 2713.-Hook. Fl. Lond. t. 211.-Lindl. in Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. xiii. p. 101.; Syn. p. 104.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 221.-Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. ii. p. 603.-Loud. Arb. et Frutic. Brit. p. 870. fig. 620.; Hort. Lig. Loud. p. 49.; Mag. Nat. Hist. v. vi. p. 55.-Macr. Man. Brit. Bot. p. 74.-Irv. Lond. Fl. p. 251.-Cotoneaster folio rotundo non serrato, Baul. Pin. p. 452.— Cotoneaster, Bauh. Hist. v. i. lib. 1. p. 73, with a figure.-Méspilus Cotoneaster, Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 686.; Fl. Suec. (2nd ed.) p. 169.-Fl. Dan. t. 112.-Willd. Sp. Pl. v. ii. pt. 11. p. 1012.-Ait. Hort. Kew. (2nd ed.) v. iii. p. 206.-Sm. Engl. Fl. v. iv. p. 268.-With. (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 600-Mespilus folio subrotundo, fructu rubro, Engl. Gard. Catal. p. 49. t. 14.-Chamamespilus, Johnson's Cerarde, p. 1454, with a figure.

LOCALITIES.-On limestone rocks in Wales.-Caernarvonshire; On the limestone cliffs of the Great Ormshead, in various places; 1825: Mr. W. WILSON. Above the village of Llandudno, on the rocks which overhang some copper mines, abundantly; June 12, 1832: Mr. W. CHRISTY, in Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. vi. p. 55.

Fig. 1. Calyx.-Fig. 2. A Flower, showing Calyx, Corolla, and Stamens.-Fig. 3. A Petal.-Fig. 4 A segment of the Calyx, with 4 of the Stamens.-Fig. 5. A separate Stamen.-Fig. 6. A Fruit.-Fig. 7. A transverse section of do.-Fig. 8. A Nut.

* A sort of barbarous word, signifying quince-like. The quince was called cotonea by PLINY; and aster a corruption of ad instar, is used occasionally to express similitude. LOUDON. † See folio 100, note +.

A small bush, with spreading or partly recumbent, round, leafy, brown, smooth branches; downy, and somewhat angular when young. Thorns none. Leaves alternate, deciduous, egg-shaped, or broadly elliptical, blunt or pointed, entire, about an inch long, and three-quarters of an inch broad; green, smooth, and even above; white, cottony and veiny beneath. Petioles (leafstalks) short, downy, channelled above; each with a pair of spear-shaped, pointed, chesnut-coloured, fringed, deciduous stipulas at its base. Peduncles (flowerstalks) downy, from the same buds as the leaves, and always shorter than them; in wild specimens usually solitary and single-flowered; in cultivated ones often branched, with 3 or 4 flowers. Bracteos very small, red, spear-shaped, and pointed. Flowers (see fig. 2.) drooping, pale red. Calyx (germen of some authors) smooth, 5-cleft, its segments egg-shaped, blunt, incurved and woolly at the margin. Petals (see fig. 3.) small, but little larger than the segments of the calyx, nearly orbicular, white with a tinge of pink. Filaments (see figs. 4 & 5.) from 16 to 20, flat, and somewhat awl-shaped. Styles 3, sometimes 4, thread-shaped. Fruit (see figs. 6 & 7.) pear-shaped, crowned with the closed segments of the calyx. Nuts (see figs. 7 & 8.) of the same number as the styles, bony, entire, each bearing one style from the lower part of its inner angle.

It is a native of sunny parts of subalpine hills of Europe and of Siberia, but it was not known to be indigenous to Britain, till Mr. WILSON found it in a wild state at Ormshead, in 1825. A specimen of it is said to have been gathered wild, by J. W. GRIFFITH, Esq. of Garn, as long ago as 1783, but it appears it was laid by and forgotten. In a wild state it forms a shrub from 2 to 3 feet high; but when cultivated it will attain the height of 4 or 5 feet. Mr. LOUDON says, that if it is grafted standard high on the hawthorn or the mountain ash, it will form a very curious, round-headed, pendent-branched tree, as may be seen in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, and in the Hammersmith Nursery. The fruit, which ripens in July and August, is said to be first green, then orange, then red, and finally black. Its pulp is mealy, insipid, or slightly austere.

LINNÆUS recommends this shrub for making low hedges, in dry broken ground, as the roots run very deep into the earth; but, according to Mr. CHRISTY'S observations, it is liable to be browsed on by sheep.

Three varieties of it are cultivated, viz. a. erythrocarpa; B. melanocarpa ; and y. depressa; the latter is rather spiny; in a the fruit is red, and ẞ black, when ripe.

The Natural Order POMACEA is composed of polypetalous, dicotyledonous trees or shrubs, with alternate, stipulate, simple, or compound leaves, and cymose, white or pink flowers The calyx is bell-shaped, or pitcher-shaped, fleshy, surrounding the carpels, and adherent to them; limb 5-lobed, the odd segment posterior. The corolla consists of 5 unquiculate petals, inserted in the throat of the calyx, the odd one anterior. The stamens are indefinite, and are inserted in a ring in the throat of the calyx. The ovaries vary in number from 1 to 5, and adhere more or less to the sides of the calyx, and to each other. The ovules are usually 2, collateral, ascending, very rarely solitary. The styles are equal in number to the ovaries, each having a simple stigma. The fruit is a pome, consisting of the berry-like calyx and carpels. The carpels are cartilaginous, spongy, or bony, of 2 valves, or indehiscent. The seeds are generally 1 or 2 in each carpel or cell (numerous in Cydonia, the Quince), upright, with a catilaginous (grisly), or bony testa (spermoderm), without albumen. The cotyledons are oval and fleshy; and the embryo upright, with a short, conical radicle.-The British genera contained in this order are, Mespilus.-Cratægus, t. 118.-Pyrus, t. 111.-and Cotoneaster, t. 402.