70 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



of 4 to lo; flowers showy, i in. across, white or sometimes with tinge of pink; calyx 

 persistent or rarely deciduous; styles distinct to the base, sometimes downy; stamens 15 

 to 20; pedicels i in. long, slender, sometimes pubescent. 



Fruits exceedingly variable under cultivation; varying from i in. in length and diameter 

 to 3 in. in diameter and 5 to 6 in. in length; variously shaped, as pyriform, turbinate, round- 

 conic, or round-oblate; green, yellow, red, or russet, or combinations of these colors; flesh 

 white, yellowish, sometimes pink or wine-red, rarely salmon-colored; flesh firm, melting, 

 or buttery and when ripening on the tree with few or many grit-cells. Seeds i to 3 in a 

 cell, sometimes abortive or wanting, large, brown, or brownish, often tufted at the tips. 



Pyrus communis, the common pear, as stated in the preceding chapter, 

 is a native of southern Europe and southwestern Asia as far east as Kashmir. 

 The species is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying from seed 

 distributed by animals and by human agencies, and is now to be found 

 naturalized in forests and byways of the temperate zones wherever pears 

 are cultivated in orchards. The pear is not as hardy as the apple, and is, 

 therefore, less generally grown. It refuses to grow in the warmest and 

 coldest parts of the temperate zones, but is a favorite orchard, dooryard, 

 and roadside plant in all mid-temperate regions. 



The species comes from regions or localities where the climate is mild 

 and equable, neither very hot nor very cold, and grows in moist, cool, and 

 rather heavy soils. These predilections cling to cultivated pears wherever 

 grown, and pure-bred varieties do not thrive under other conditions. Wild 

 or cultivated, the pear is a deep-rooted plant, a fact that must be taken 

 into consideration in selecting orchard sites. On shallow soils pears thrive 

 better on the shallow-rooted quince. 



Few cultivated fruits have changed more under domestication than 

 the common pear. The trees under cultivation are larger and much more 

 vigorous, and the fruits in the best orchard varieties — the consummation 

 of the breeder's art — would by no one be considered the same species if 

 the two were found in the wild. The pears from truly wild trees in the 

 Old World are small, nearly round, hard, gritty, sour, and astringent. 

 Fruits from the run-wild trees from the chance transport of seeds in this 

 country are scarcely more attractive to either eye or palate. The product 

 of these wild trees can hardly be called edible fruits. Cultivated varieties 

 seem to have been evolved, until the advent of Le Conte and Kieffer, only 

 by cultivation and selection. All plants are improved more rapidly under 

 hybridization than selection, and now that the hybridization of this pear 

 with other species is in full swing, we may expect, for the New World at 

 least, a new pear flora in the immediate future. 



