76 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
ROSACEA, 
tomentum. The fruit is depressed-globose or sometimes slightly pyriform, and is from three quarters 
of an inch to an inch in diameter, pale yellow-green, and very fragrant when fully ripe, with hard 
acid flesh. 
Pyrus angustifolia is distributed from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,’ and southern Delaware 
through the coast region of the southern Atlantic states to the valley of the Chattahoochee in western 
Florida, and through the Gulf states to the valley of the Red River in Louisiana, and northward to 
middle Tennessee. In the Atlantic states, where it is more common than in the country west of the 
Alleghany Mountains, Pyrus angustifolia usually grows in open forest glades in stiff clay soil near 
streams, and in the Gulf states in the sandy soil of dry depressions in rolling Pine-covered uplands. 
The wood of Pyrus angustifolia is heavy, hard, and close-grained ; it is light brown tinged with 
red, with thick yellow sapwood and many obscure medullary rays. The specific gravity of the abso- 
lutely dry wood is 0.6895, a cubic foot weighing 42.97 pounds. It is occasionally employed for levers, 
the handles of tools, and other small objects. 
The fruit is used for preserves and is occasionally made into cider. 
Tt was this tree, no doubt, that William Strachey found on the James River in 1610,2 although it 
was not recognized by botanists until nearly the end of the next century, the earliest description having 
been drawn up from trees cultivated in England, where it was introduced in 1750* by Christopher 
Gray.* 
The southern Crab-apple is occasionally cultivated in the gardens of Europe. When in flower it 
is not surpassed in beauty by any of the small trees of North America, and the traveler in the gloomy 
and monotonous Pine forests of the southern states experiences no more delightful sensation than when 
he comes unexpectedly into some retired glade and finds it filled with these trees covered by their deli- 
cate and fragrant flowers. 
1 Pyrus angustifolia was first noticed here by Professor Thomas 
C. Porter. 
2 «“ Crabb trees there be, but the fruict small and bitter, howbeit, 
being graffed upon, soone might we have of our owne apples of 
any kind, peares, and what ells.” (Historie of Travaile into Vir- 
ginia Britannia, ed. Major, 130.) 
8 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ii. 176.— Loudon, Ard. Brit. ii. 909, t. 
4 Christopt 
in the eighteenth century, and appears to have been active in intro- 
Gray established a nursery-garden at Fulham early 
ducing North American plants, for Mark Catesby, in the preface to 
the Hortus Britanno-Americanus, published in 1767, remarks that 
“Mr. Gray at Fulham has for many years made it his business to 
raise and cultivate the plants of America (from whence he has annu- 
ally fresh supplies) in order to furnish the Curious with what they 
want ;” and that, “through his industry and skill a greater variety 
of American forest-trees and shrubs may be seen in his gardens, 
than in any other place in England.” According to Loudon, the 
first plant of Magnolia fetida which was brought to England was 
planted in Gray’s nursery ; it died in 1810, when it had formed a 
head twenty feet in diameter and a trunk nearly five feet in cir- 
cumference (Arb. Brit. i. 76). 
In 1755 Gray published a catalogue of the plants cultivated in 
his garden, which is supposed to have been written by Philip 
Miller. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pratt CLXIX. PyRus ANGUSTIFOLIA. 
1. A flowering branch, natural size. 
2. Vertical section of a flower, parts of the stamens and petals removed, enlarged. 
8. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
4. Vertical section of a fruit, natural size. 
5, A winter branchlet, natural size. 
