Cotoneaster franchetii Bois

An evergreen shrub 8 to 10 ft high, with slender, gracefully arching branches, which the first year are covered with a dense, pale brown wool. Leaves oval, tapering towards both ends, from 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, about half as wide, pointed; upper surface rather hairy when young, lustrous green later, lower surface covered with a thick, whitish, afterwards pale brown felt; stalk 1⁄8 in. or less long. Flowers borne in corymbs of five to fifteen flowers terminating short, lateral, leafy twigs; petals erect, white, touched with rose on the outside; calyx felted like the under-surface of the leaves. Fruit oblong, 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. long; orange-scarlet; nutlets usually three. Bot. Mag., t. 8571.

Native of Tibet and W. China; first raised in France about 1895, by Maurice de Vilmorin, from seed sent by the Abbé Soulié. It is a shrub of very elegant growth, whose fruits are freely borne, but lose in brilliancy by the greyish down, more or less dense, which covers them. It was at first confused with C. pannosus but the two species belong, in fact, to different subdivisions of the genus, so the resemblance is really superficial. The distinguishing characters may be defined as follows: leaves rather longer than in pannosus, but with stalks scarcely half as long, the upper surface somewhat lustrous; flowers not so numerous in each cluster, petals erect and rose-tinted; fruits larger, longer, and not of so deep a red. It flowers in May, and the fruit is ripe in October.