IIH SYSTEMATIC POMOhOGY 



of P. serotiiia, the Chiiiose Sand pear, or liybrids Ix'tweon the 

 two species, of wliich the well-known KielYer is a typical one. 

 A third species, /*. nivalis, the Snow pear, is grown sparingly in 

 Europe for cider but is not cultivated for its fruits in America, 

 nor does it seem to have sufficient value to warrant its introduc- 

 tion to the pomology of the country. Some European pomolo- 

 gists think that P. nivalis is a hybrid parent of several pears 

 cultivated in European orchards as varieties of P. communis. 



168. Pyrus communis, the pear, described. — The two species 

 of pears in whit'h poniologists are interested are so well differen- 

 tiated in their botanical characters that varieties of both may 

 be recognized without difficulty when the salient characteristics 

 of the species are known. 



3. Pyrus communis, Linn. (Plate II). A vigorous upright tree attain- 

 ing a height of 80 feet and a diameter of 4 feet, usually with an oblong 

 or pyramidal and rather compact top; bark on old trees rough with rather 

 large persistent scales. Leaves 2-4 inches long, 1-2 inches wide, oblong- 

 ovate, thin, hard and veiny; upper surface dark green, glabrous; lower 

 surface light green, glabrous; apex acuminate; margin, crenate-serrate or 

 entire, never setose-serrate; petiole 1-2 inches long, becoming glabrous. 

 Flowers 1-2 inches across, white, appearing with the leaves, borne in 4-12 

 umbel-like clusters on slender pedicels; calyx persistent or rarely decid- 

 uous; stamens 15-20. Fruit exceedingly variable under cultivation, usually 

 pyriform, sometimes round-conic, turbinate or occasionally round-oblate; 

 green, yellow, red or russet, or combinations of these colors; flesh of fruits 

 ripening on the tree with few or many grit -cells. Seeds 1-3 in a cell, some- 

 times abortive or wanting, large, brown or brownish, often tufted at the 

 tips. 



Pomologists classify European, as distinguished from Asiatic 

 pears, under this type species. Botanists, however, describe 

 several botanical varieties into w^hich they would put some of 

 the orchard pears, but for the purposes of pomological classifica- 

 tion the species may as well be kept intact. 



169. Habitat and history of the European pear. — Pyrus 

 comnnini-s now grows naturally in all but the coldest and ^varm- 

 est parts of Europe and Asia. It probably came originally from 

 the Caucasian countries and northern Persia, where, in elevated 

 regions, there are now forests of wild pears ; or, possibly, the 

 original center of distribution w^as in Cashmere and the north- 

 western Himalayas, where there are also pear forests. The tree 



