76 ORCHARD TREES. 



large clusters, render it the admiration of all. The lover 

 of nature is delighted to find this species in a perfectly 

 unsophisticated state, and unimproved by culture, which 

 always tends to insipidity. The Druids paid great rever- 

 ence to the apple-tree, because the mistletoe grew upon 

 it. In our own fields it is free from this parasite, which 

 is not found on the western continent above the latitude 

 of Virginia. 



The apple-tree bears some resemblance to the oak in 

 its general outlines, displaying, though inferior in size, 

 more sturdiness than grace. A standard apple-tree com- 

 monly resembles a hemisphere, often in diameter ex- 

 ceeding its own height. This shape might be caused by 

 training ; but the gardener, by cutting off certain branches, 

 does not change the tendency of the tree to assume its 

 normal shape. The foliage of the apple-tree is rather 

 coarse, stiff, and inelegant, and deficient in purity of 

 verdure, being after it is fully developed of a dusky 

 green, and without tints when ripened, save what may 

 be termed accidental There is, nevertheless, a certain 

 kind of beauty in an old apple-tree which is seen in no 

 other of the orchard trees, rendering it a very picturesque 

 object in rustic scenery. 



The PEAR-TREE is taller than the apple-tree, assuming 

 an imperfectly pyramidal shape. Its branches have not 

 the horizontal tendency of the latter ; but when growing 

 singly as a standard it greatly surpasses it in dimen- 

 sions, and many individuals of a former age, that have 

 escaped the axe of horticultural improvement, are noble 

 standards, and of no inferior merit as shade-trees. The 

 foliage of the pear-tree displays some of the tremulous 

 habit of the aspen, owing to the length and slenderness 

 of its leaf-stems. It has, moreover, a gloss that distin- 

 guishes it from that of the apple-tree ; it is also less 



