On 3/12/07 17:00, in article ,
"Mike...." wrote:

Following up to (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

"Some sort of japonica", in normal usage, can mean only one of the
Chaenomeles. Japonica as the name of a group of plants means that
and nothing else.

are there not various "japanese" quinces? I understood the meaning to
be that. I had an ormamental one in the garden for a time.

Japanese quinces are usually understood to be Chaenomeles and then there are
named varieties of that. AFAIK, you can make jelly from them.
Cydonia is the true quince with the large, golden, roughly pear-shaped fruit
- these are real beauties when mature trees but they're not the 'mysterious
fruit' I'm trying to ID.
--
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