CHAP. XLII. ROSA CEA. PY‘RUS. 881 
sive cultivation on account of its fruit, independently altogether of its 
handsome shape and large flowers. 
Beurré de Rans (not Beurrée rance, as commonly written, which means 
rank, or rancid). Branches spreading, or pendulous. The best 
very late pear yet known. It bears very well as a standard. 
Bexi de la Motte. eaves remarkably narrow. 
Glout Morceau. Branches spreading. Head pyramidal. A hardy tree, 
and a great bearer. The fruit of most excellent flavour, and hanging 
late on the tree. The plate of this variety in Vol. LIL. is the portrait 
of a tree in our garden at Bayswater, planted in 1825; the trunk of 
which is covered with ivy ; and which, notwithstanding this, is loaded 
with fruit almost every year, without any care or attention whatever 
being bestowed upon it. 
Napoléon, Leaves broad and shining. Blossoms large. The tree 
vigorous, and a good bearer. The fruit excellent. 
Swan's Egg. A handsome pyramidal tree, and an excellent bearer. 
The fruit roundish, or obovate. This is one of the commonest pear 
trees in the market-gardens about London ; and we have introduced 
the name here from having ourselves observed the handsome shapes 
taken by thetrees. The fruit, however, as compared with that of the 
sorts recommended above by Mr. Thompson, is not worth culti- 
vating ; though, in the months of November and December, it is more 
abundant in the London markets than that of any other variety. 
The following Scotch pears are recommended by Mr. Gorrie, as 
forms adapted for landscape scenery; but little can be said in fayour 
of their fruit, as compared with that of the new Flemish varieties. 
The Benvie, the Golden Knap, and the Elcho take fastigiate forms; the 
latter more especially, Mr. Gorrie says, may be called the Lom- 
bardy poplar of the pear tribe. These trees generally attain the 
height of from 45 ft. to 50 ft. in as many years, in the Carse of 
Gowrie, in Perthshire. 
The busked Lady and the Pow Meg take spreading orbiculate forms, such 
as will assort with the A\cer Psetido-Platanus, and may be called the 
oaks and elms of the pear family. (See Gard. Mag., vol. iv. p. 11.) 
Description. The pear tree, in a wild state, has a pyramidal-shaped head, with 
thorny branches, at first erect, and afterwards curved downwards and pen- 
dulous. The roots are few, and descend perpendicularly, with few lateral 
ramifications, except in shallow and rich soil. The leaves vary exceedingly 
in different soils, and in different parts of Europe and Asia: in Britain, they 
are generally green, and slightly tomentose, and do not differ greatly in mag- 
nitude; but in the woods of Poland, and in the vast steppes of Russia, the 
leaves of the wild pear trees are commonly white with down, and vary so 
exceedingly in their dimensions, as to mclude what are called the willow- 
leaved, the sage-leaved, the eleeagnus-leaved, and other narrow-leaved varieties, 
which by many are considered to be species. The fruit of the pear, in a wild 
state, is seldom more than a fourth part of the size of even the most ordinary 
cultivated varieties; and it is also austere, and unfit to eat. The plant is 
always found on a dry soil, and more frequently on plains than on hills or 
mountains ; and solitary, or in small groups, rather than in woods and forests. 
The rate of growth is 2 ft. or 3 ft. a year for the first 6 or 7 years; in 10 years 
it will attain the height of 20 ft. in gardens ; and in 30 years the height of 50 ft., 
with a trunk from 1 ft. to 18in. in diameter; which may be considered its 
average dimensions in Britain. The tree is of great longevity. M. Bosc 
says that he has seen trees that were considered to be more than 400 years 
old; and Mr. Knight believes that there are trees of the Teynton squash 
(a famous perry pear) which existed as early as the beginning of the fifteenth 
century. All writers on trees, from Theophrastus to the present day, agree 
that, as the tree grows old, it increases in fruitfulness ; which is, indeed, the 
case w th most other trees. 
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