290 PYRUS COMMUNIS. 



much further, had nature been left to lier own oporations. It is now not a quar- 

 ter the size it once boasted: hut it looks healthy and vigorous, and when 1 saw 

 it, it was covered with hixiiriiiiit blossoms. 'I'he orJLMMal trunk is still reinain- 

 injj: and tlien^ are youui: shoots which arc. only yet ai)i)roaching the ltouikI, hut 

 which seem nearly ready to take root in it. The tree would ccnnpletely have 

 covered the vicarasie garden, if it had been allowed to remain. It is said to liave 

 been in its greatest perfection al)out 1770 or 1777. There is another tree of the 

 same kind in the neiizlibourhood. Hereford, M(nj 18, 1836."' 



In Scotland, at Kestahig, near Kdinburgh, in a garden adjacent to what was 

 the house of Albert Logan, who was attainted in the reign of James VI., (of 

 Scotland, and First of Kngland,) tliere is a pear-tree, which was probably 

 |)lanted before his forfeiture. It is of the kind called " Golden Knap," which, in 

 that part of the country, is generally considered as the best variety to plant for 

 timber. At two and a half feet from the ground, in 1836, it was four yards in 

 circumference. Dr. Neill lias mentioned a number of very old pear-trees, 

 standing in the neighbourhood of Jedburgh Abbey, and in fields known to 

 have been formerly the gardens of religious houses in Scotland, which were 

 destroyed at the time of the " Reformation." Such trees are, for the most part, 

 in good health, and are abundant bearers ; and as some of them must have been 

 planted when the abbeys were built, they are probably from five to six hundred 

 years old.* 



The introduction of this fruit-tree into the North American colonies, probably 

 dates back to the early periods of their settlements. Tliere are at present exist- 

 ing in this coimtry, many aged trees, celebrated for the improved excellence of 

 their fruit, among which may be mentioned a venerable old tree, standing at the 

 corner of the Third avenue and Thirteenth street, in the city of New York. It 

 is said to have been planted in about the year 1046, by Peter Stuyvesani, then 

 governor of New Netherlands, and has been a living witness of all the changes 

 and political struggles through which this city has passed, for a period of nearly 

 two hundred years. Although its trunk and larger branches are signally marked 

 by the effects of time, it annually bears an abundance of delicious fruit, and at 

 the present date, (April 17, 184.5.) it is covered with a profusion of flowers. It is 

 about forty feet in height, with a trunk one hundred inches in girth, at a yard 

 above the ground. 



Soil and Situation. The common pear-tree naturally requires a dry soil, and 

 where it is intended to grow to a large size, and be productive, it should be 

 deep and fertile. It has been remarked that a somewhat clayey soil is more 

 favourable to the longevity of the tree than one that is loose and sandy, in conse- 

 quence of the resistance it offers to the larvae of insects, which attack its fruit, 

 leaves, and wood, and which usually burrow below the surface, to transform. 

 The same remark, it is said, holds true with regard to the apple, the mountain 

 ash, (Pyrus aucuparia.) and other trees of this genus. " In respect to situation," 

 Mr. Loudon observes, " where the pear-tree is grown for timber, or its effect in 

 landscape scenery, it may either be planted at regular distances, as in an orchard, 

 in lines in a hedge-row, or in scattered groups. There are few trees better 

 adapted for being grown in hedge-rows than the fasti giate-growing varieties of 

 the pear, because their roots descend perpendicularly, and can, therefore, never 

 interfere with the plough ; and the heads, whether fastigiate or spreading, it is 

 known from experience, do very little injury to pasture. If, therefore, fastigiate- 

 growing trees, producing excellent sorts of fruit, were planted in all hedges, a 

 very great benefit would result to the proprietors or to the public." 



Propagation and Cidtiire. The wild pear may be continued by seed : but th 



* See Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum, ii., p. 

 i 



