32 The Journal 
markable manner in which this pear 
holds its foliage. The photograph was 
taken on September 11, 1919. At this 
time the leaves on the Japanese seed- 
lings (see Fig. 14) and the French seed- 
lings (see Fig. 15) were practically all 
off, largely as a result of the attacks of 
the leaf blight fungus, Entosporium 
maculatum. 
The Chinese Calleryana Pear, Pyrus 
calleryana, S. P. I. No. 44044 and other 
S. P. I. Nos. (see Fig. 16).—Of all the 
pears tested and studied this remarkable 
Chinese species holds out the greatest 
promise as a stock. The tree has a 
very wide range in China, and several 
distinct types have already appeared. 
It has stood some very severe winters 
during the past twelve years at the 
Arnold Arboretum. It grows and 
thrives luxuriantly at our Field Station, 
Brooksville, Fla., where it is almost an 
evergreen. One of the last important 
pieces of work of the late Frank Meyer 
was the collection of more than 100 
pounds of the seed of this pear in the 
mountains in and around Ichang, China. 
After many trials and heart-breaking 
delays, Meyer got the seed to us, 
but before it could be put in the ground 
his body was floating in the great 
Yangtze River, that giant of waters 
which for centuries has taken its human 
toll. Alone for months, with many 
dangers around him, he wrote: 
“T am sitting now in a Chinese 
house, for the inn I lived in at first was 
too noisy and dark, and there was no 
room to dry seeds or specimens. Some 
mice are running about, mosquitos 
buzz, a cricket sings in an old wall, 
and the policeman who is stationed to 
spy upon me snores on the bench, for 
it is well into the night. Tomorrow 
we may go to see a lot of pear trees 
15 miles from here.” 
All who have tested the Calleryana 
pear as a stock, report favorably upon 
of Heredity 
it. It is a vigorous grower under 
nearly all conditions. It holds its 
leaves well, and it can be budded any 
time from July 1 to September 1. All 
of our best kinds of pears so far tried 
take well upon it. The seedlings are 
easily grown and, when from pure 
types, run remarkably uniform. Com- 
mercial supplies of the seed are not 
yet available, but it is believed that 
considerable quantities can be obtained 
through one or two reliable sources in 
China. Meanwhile it is important to 
assure ourselves of a home-grown supply 
of this most promising species. To this 
end codperative planting of trees for 
seed purposes, and codperative efforts 
in top-working other trees with the 
Calleryana species are under way. 
Wood is now available for the latter 
object. The remarkable uniformity and 
vigor of the seedlings are shown in 
Fig. 16. This picture was taken August 
14, at which time most of the French 
seedlings (Fig. 15) were entirely de- 
foliated. Fig. 17 shows the growth of 
spring-made grafts on this stock. The 
variety is a new pear supposed to be 
a cross between Kieffer and La Conte. 
The grafts were put out May 1 and the 
photographs taken August 14, three 
and a half months later. By October 
1 these grafts averaged 7 feet in height. 
Summarizing, it may be said that the 
prospect of finding new and valuable 
pear stocks among the oriental wild 
species seems very good. What the 
ultimate life of our principal varieties 
of cultivated species on these stocks 
may be remains to be determined. 
This is a long-time problem. Already 
there is sufficient encouragement to go 
forward with the work in the hope that 
we shall eventually not only be able 
to produce all of our own stocks but 
produce them, having all the desirable 
characteristics set forth at the beginning 
of this paper. 
