444 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



tered hairs of the opening leaves, gives a delicate beauty to this 

 early welcome promise of the woods. 



Dr. Darlington says that the fruit is considerably improved 

 in size and quality by long culture. 



A tree of this species standing near the comb manufactory in 

 Chester, measured five feet seven inches in circumference, at 

 five feet from the ground. 



The second variety has been called the Swamp Pyrus ; Swamp 

 Sugar Pear ; A. ovdlis. The leaves are oval oblong, finely and 

 sharply serrate, and finely acuminate, downy on both surfaces 

 when young, very downy and white beneath ; petioles, pedun- 

 cles and calyx covered with a silken down; stipules slender, 

 linear ; segments of the calyx acute, ciliate ; petals obovate, 

 twice as long as the calyx, more persistent than in the last 

 variety. 



This is a smaller tree than the preceding, but sometimes rises 

 to twelve or fifteen feet. It is usually, however, a shrub It has 

 a great resemblance to it, so that many botanists, and, among 

 them. Dr. Torrey and Dr. Hooker, are disposed to consider it a 

 variety of the same species. It cannot be easily determined what 

 constitutes a specific difference, and what should be regarded 

 as only an accidental variation. The points of distinction in 

 this plant, however, are more numerous and more marked than 

 are to be found between many nearly allied species in other 

 genera. The leaves, when just opening, are completely invest- 

 ed, on the under surface, with a close, velvety, whitish down, 

 while those of the Botryapium have only a few silken hairs : 

 and a similar difference, not so marked, may be observed in the 

 inflorescence. The leaves are less sharply serrated, the serra- 

 tures being sometimes hardly visible. The racemes are longer, 

 closer and more erect than in the foregoing, and the petals of 

 the corolla more distinctly obovate. It usually occurs in low, 

 moist grounds, and is one of the earliest and most conspicuous 

 ornaments of swampy woods. The fruit is more juicy and 

 agreeable than that of the former. Still there is not in the fruit 

 a tithe of the difference which we observe between apples from 

 the same orchard, and growing on trees which sprung from 

 seeds of the same fruit 



