THE PYRAMIDAL PEAR TREES. 



the town," and all the works and places which bear impress of the Deity, are far letter 

 for bees as well as for bipeds. 



''Rura milii placent ante omnia" — 



Tlie coiiiiiiy, the country is the right place for me, 

 The fields and the woods for the sweet sucking bee. 



Still, if it be his misfortune to be tied down to brick and mortar, and a pavemented 

 town, he had better resort to the " non-swarming hives," and depend for the increase 

 of his stock upon some farmer out of town. My limits, or rather your limits, will 

 not permit the space for the details, or I could give a description of one which I have 

 used for 3'ears, without its swarming, and have had an annual produce of honey of from 

 fifty to eighty pounds, without destroying a bee. [We shall be glad to have this descrip- 

 tion. Ed.] Yours, 11. K. 0. 



Laiorence, Mass., Feb. 14, 1S51. 



THE PYRAMIDAL PEAR TREES, 



IN THE GARDEN OF PLANTS. 



The most beautiful sight, in the way of hardy fruit tree culture, that greeted our eyes 

 last season, in Europe, was that of the Pyramidal Pear Trees in the Jar din des Plantes. 



On one side of this great national garden, which, with its parterres, schools and muse- 

 ums, is a vast collection of all that is interesting in Natural History, is a piece of ground 

 of perhaps an acre, somewhat away from the principal walks. It is separated from the 

 rest of the garden, (to which the public has the freest access,) by an iron railing and a 

 gate, which is kept locked. This is the " school of pears" — that is to say, the garden in 

 which MoxsiEUR Cappe, the head of the fruit department, has his house, and more espe- 

 cially his beautiful pear trees — to which he has given up almost the whole of the area al- 

 lotted to him. 



It was September when we were in this garden. "We were weary with a day of sight- 

 seeing, and a long ramble through the other different departments of the garden, and 

 though very desirous of seeing M. Cappe's trees, which have become rather famous as 

 fine specimens of the art of pruning, and had come provided with a note to him which 

 would open the iron gate where the trees of knowledge stood — we had almost determin- 

 ed before we reached it, that we would be content with a passing glance from the outside, 

 at what we supposed would present a familiar appearance to our eyes. 



But a passing glance through the iron railing soon made us feel that ]\I. Cappe was not 

 a man to be neglected. And patiently we waited till one of the garcons had found him 

 and delivered our note, in order that we might enter the now unclosed gate, and make the 

 acquaintance of the master of pear trees. 



"We do not wish to depreciate the magnificent pictures in the Louvre, but we must still 

 be allowed to say, that in their loay, M. Cappe's pear trees are as well worth seeing as 

 any of the great master-pieces of art there. Nobody (with a soul) would think of com- 

 paring a PoussiN with a pear tree, yet what one of Poussin's grand sj^lvan landscapes, 

 (in which you can almost feel the tempest that sways the tops,) is to a landscape on a 

 sign-board, ]M. Cappe's pyramidal pear trees are to the pear trees of common gardens, 

 both in England and America. 



readers must imagined level plot of ground, marked off into beds or borders, about 

 feet wide, with a narrow alley between. In a straight line in the middle of these beds 



