OECHARD TREES. 77 



stubborn in retaining its verdure, and partially tinted 

 in autumn. The pear-trees which have been raised 

 within the last thirty years are mostly dwarfed, and 

 seldom display their normal shape. They are small, with 

 straggling branches, and unworthy of consideration in a 

 treatise of this kind. The old standards, still occasion- 

 ally seen in pastures and fallow lands, are the only ones 

 that affect the beauty of landscape. I have mentioned 

 several points in which the pear-tree surpasses the apple- 

 tree as a beautiful and stately object ; but its fruit will 

 bear no comparison in beauty with that of the apple-tree, 

 which produces a greater -variety of beautiful fruit than 

 any other tree that is known. 



The QUINCE-TREE, though inferior in size, and not pros- 

 pering very well on the soil of New England, which is 

 rather too cold for it, deserves a passing remark. In 

 botanical characters it bears more resemblance to the pear 

 than to the apple. The fruit has the same tender and 

 mucilaginous core ; the seeds are not enclosed in a dry hull, 

 like those of the apple ; and the pulp of the quince, like 

 that of the pear, is granulated, while that of the apple 

 displays in its texture a finer and firmer organization. I 

 may add the well-known fact that the pear may be grafted 

 upon a quince stock, while no such union can be effected 

 between the apple and the quince, or the apple and the 

 pear. The quince-tree makes a very elegant appearance, 

 both when covered with its large white and crimson- 

 stained, flowers, and when laden with its golden Hespe- 

 rian fruit. 



'' > 



The PLUM-TREE, in connection with the orchard, hardly 

 deserves mention ; but there are two indigenous species 

 which in some places are conspicuous objects in our fields. 

 The beach-plum requires no description. It is a low 



