MESPILUS germanica.
Cornmon Medlar.
ICOSANDRIA Pentagynia.
G en . Char. Cal. in 5 segments. Petals 5. Drupa
inferior. Nuts 2 to 5 , with 2 seeds each. •
Spec, Char. Thorns none. Leaves lanceolate, almost
entire, a little downy. Flowers solitary, nearly
sessile, terminal. Styles five.
S y n . Mespilus germanica. Linn. Sp. PI. 6 8 4 . Sm.
FI. Brit. 530. Huds.21^. With. 4 6 1 . Hull. 10 9 .
Mespilus. Dill, in Rail Syn. 453.
H a v i n g never found this tree wild, we are obliged to have
recourse to a garden specimen. Dillenius admitted it into his
edition of Ray’s Synopsis at the instigation of Du Bois, who
thought it wild in all the hedges about Minshull, Cheshire; an
opinion we have not been able to confirm or to disprove. It
forms a moderate-sized spreading tree, flowering in May or
June. The fruit is perfected in autumn; but the pulp is
harsh and astringent, not eatable till it has been mellowed by
keeping. It is subject to many variations in size and flavour,
like the apple and pear.
The leaves are deciduous, spreading, oblong, on footstalks,
soft and pliable, veiny, most downy beneath, for the most
part entire, except sometimes towards the point. Flowers
solitary at the end of each branch, encompassed with leaves,
nearly sessile, large, white, inodorous. Calyx downy; its
teeth long, narrow, permanent. Petals roundish, notched.
Styles 5, their base surrounded with a brownish ring or nectarv.
Fruit depressed, concave at the top. Nuts hard, compressed,
angular.