SYNOPSIS OF THE CHINESE SPECIES OF PYRUS. 



By Au'itKi) Rioumcu. 

 Presented, January L3, L915. Received, January L9, 1915. 



At ih«' Arnold Arboretum there have been growing under the name 

 of Pyrus sinensis several quite distinct trees which always have been 

 a puzzle as regards their taxonomic standing. In working up the 

 Pyrus of the Wilson collection I took the opportunity to essay a 

 determination of all the Chinese Pyrus represented in the herbarium 

 and grounds of the Arnold Arboretum. The first task, of course, was 

 to decide which of the different forms represents the true Pyrus 

 sinensis of Lindley. Professor Sargent, who had always taken much 

 interest in the ( 'hincse pear question, looked up Lindley \s type in t he 

 Botanical Museum at Cambridge during his visit, to England last 

 summer and came to the conclusion that, it docs not agree wbh any 

 of the forms now cultivated as Pyrus .sinensis. He brought hack an 

 excellent, photograph of the type specimen, which, together with 



Lindley's description and figure in the Botanical Register, convinced 

 me, too, that P. sinensis of Lindley is quite different from the P. 

 sinensis of subsequent authors, which is in most cases an aggregate of 

 several species. To one of them belong the forms introduced some 

 forty years ago from Japan into this country as Japanese or (hincse 

 sand pears and which have given rise by crossing with the common 

 pear to the Kieffer and similar forms. These Japanese pears are 

 probably garden forms derived from u Chinese type or partly hybrids 

 and, though differing in the fruit, are remarkably alike in foliage, as 

 shown by an extensive collection from the Garden Herbarium of the 

 Cornell University Experiment Station, kindly loaned by I'rofessor 

 L. H. Bailey. Two apparently wild forms, introduced from northern 

 China, have been cultivated at the Arnold Arboretum since L8S2, to- 

 gether with a third form of unknown native habitat, received from Kew 

 as P. Sinionii which I have seen in France cultivated as P. sinensis. 

 Two other forms have been introduced by Wilson from western ( 'hina. 

 Recently the Department of Agriculture has introduced a number of 

 Chinese cultivated pears which exhibit a, great variety in the size, 

 shape, color and quality of the fruits, and, to a lesser degree, also in 

 foliage. We are obliged to the Department for a series of photo- 

 graphs of fruits taken in China and of specimens of leaves from grafts 



