922 ARBORETUM AND FRU'TICETUM. PART Ill. 
, 
habitat given, except that of a solitary tree in Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, 
in Worcestershire. (See p. 23.) This tree (which stands on the property 
of William Lacon Childe, 
Esq., of Kinlet, and of 
which a drawing has been 
kindlysent tous by the Earl 
of Mount Norris), is of 
very great age, and is now 
in a state of decay. The 
whitty pear tree, as it is 
there called, is 45 ft. high ; 
the diameter of its trunk, 
at 1 ft. from the ground, 
is Lft. 9in., and that of 
the head 26 ft. Our en- 
graving of the tree (jig. 
644.) is to ascale of 1 in. 
to 12ft., and the botani- 
eal specimen is to a scale 
of iin. to 2ft. Miller, 
in 1731, says, “ The ma- 
nured service was formerly 
said to be growing wild 
in England; but this, I 
believe, was a mistake, for 
several curious persons 
have strictly searched those 
places where it was men- 
tioned to grow, and could 
not find it; nor could 
they learn from the inha- 
bitants of those countries 
that any such tree had ever 
grown there.” Miller adds 
that, though abundant in 
Italy, where a great variety 
of sorts are cultivated, 
yet it is very scarce in 
England, “for,” he continues, “I have not seen more than one large tree, 
which was lately growing in the gardens formerly belonging to John Trades- 
cant; which tree was near 40 ft. high, and did produce a great quantity of 
fruit annually.” He afterwards mentions some smaller trees, growing in the 
garden of Henry Marsh, Esq., at Hammersmith, which produced fruit, from 
which several young trees have been raised in the London nurseries. In 
1752, Miller observes, “ There is a great number of large trees of the true 
service growing wild about Aubigné, in France; whence the late Duke of 
Richmond [who was also Duc d’ Aubigné, and a great lover of plants] brought 
a great quantity of the fruit, and from the seeds raised a number of young 
plants at Goodwood, in Sussex.” We have repeatedly examined the planta- 
tions at Goodwood, in search of Pyrus Sérbus, but have never been able to 
find a single plant of that species. The tree is tender, when young, even in 
France; and it is exceedingly difficult to raise in the gardens there. There 
are but a few specimens of it in England, which are chiefly in the neighbour- 
hood of London; and, for the last 30 years, scarcely any plants of it could 
be obtained in any of the London nurseries, except at Messrs. Loddiges’s, and 
even there only since the yea 1815. The tree appears to have been known 
to the Greeks and Romans. Pliny mentions four sorts: the pear-shaped, the 
apple-shaped, the egg-shaped, and a kind that was only used medicinally. 

