1. The empalement and pointals.
2. A branch of ripe fruit.
For this undescribed species of Mespilus we are indebted to the Right Hon. the Marquis of Bath, who first observed it to be distinct from the Mespilus tanacetifolia, with which it has commonly been confounded, and pointed out the specific differences to Mr. Lambert in 1807. The accuracy of his Lordship’s observations we have often verified this summer in the different collections about London, and find the two species quite distinct in fruit, foliage, and bracteæ. Mespilus odoratissima forms handsome dwarf trees, from 6 to 12 feet high in the specimens we have seen. The blossoms appear in June, and are remarkably fragrant, but considerably smaller than in M. tanacetifolia; but this is abundantly compensated by the livelier colour and greater profusion of the fruit with which the boughs are loaded in autumn. The tree called by Professor Pallas Cratægus orientalis, (see the English translation of his Travels in the Crimea, vol. ii. p. 174 and 181,) and which he found cultivated for its fruit in the south-western parts of the Crimea, where it also grows wild on the mountains, is this species, as we have ascertained from his Herbarium; and the little red Medlar found in Anatolia by Tournefort, (see his Travels, vol. ii. p. 322 of the English translation,) noticed by Dr. Smith in his Exotic Botany, is probably the same thing. We were favoured with the specimens both of this and M. tanacetifolia (our next plate) by the Right Hon. the Marchioness of Bath, from Longleat.
PLATE DXCI.
MESPILUS TANACETIFOLIA.
Tansy-leaved Medlar.
CLASS XII. ORDER V.
ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. Twenty Chives. Five Pointals.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.