MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS PYRUS. 193 



including our common pears, both pear-shaped and apple- 

 shaped, " both forms being often met with upon the same 

 tree." Under this head Professor Decaisne gives some inter- 

 esting pages upon the history of the cultivation of pears in 

 France, which cannot be ancient, and of cider (perry) as 

 a drink. It appears that it took the place of beer in the 

 north of France in the fifteenth century or later, and is now 

 giving way to wine and perhaps beer again ; and that pears 

 would have disappeared before this from a part of Normandy, 

 were it not that they are carried in immense quantities to 

 Epernay, where they are used in the manufacture of cham- 

 pagne. 3. The Hellenic Race, which comprises P. parvijfora 

 and three other subspecies. 4. The Pontic Race, P. salici- 

 folia and its allies. 5. The Indian Race, P. Pashia and 

 its relatives. 6. The Mongolian Race, P. Sine7isis and its 

 varieties. As one turns over the excellent plates one can 

 hardly be persuaded that such extremely diverse forms can 

 practically be regarded as of one species. 



A list of the species remanded from Pyrus to other genera 

 shows that the result of our author's prolonged and sagacious 

 study is to increase the genera about as much as he diminishes 

 the species of the Linnaean Pyrus. 



A detailed analysis of Decaisne's monograph of the genus 

 Pyrus was given in this Journal (3 ser., iv. 489, Dec, 1872). 

 Some of the views taken in that work are fully expounded in 

 the present paper, ^ which embracing the results of a prolonged 

 study of an important group, by a botanist of great experience 

 and ability, is worthy of particular attention. As the veteran 

 author states it : — 



" My principal object is here to call the attention of bota- 

 nists to certain characters which have been neglected in sys- 

 tematic works, by the aid of which the ancient genera merged 

 in Pyrus by most of the recent systematists may be neatly 

 circumscribed. Such is the constancy and the value of these 

 characters that the details of organization peculiar to each 

 generic group may be expressed by very general propositions, 



^ Memoire sur la Famille des Pomacees. Par J. Decaisne (Nouvelles 

 Archives du Museum, x. pp. 113, 192). Paris, 1875. 



