DECIDUOUS TREES. 429 



THE SIBERIAN CRAB, P. m. prunifolia, has smoother, lighter- 

 colored twigs and bark than our wilding, a more graceful growth, 

 and less abundant and less fragrant bloom ; but its clusters of 

 small yellow fruit add greatly to the beauty of the tree in Septem- 

 ber. There is a variety with pink-colored fruit. 



THE CHINESE DOUBLE-FLOWERING CRAB, P. spectabilis, is the 

 finest of all the crab-trees for ornamental planting. Its blossoms 

 are semi-double, very large, nearly two inches in diameter, of a 

 rose-color when expanded, but a beautiful deep red in the bud. 

 The fruit is yellow, when ripe, and the size of a cherry. The tree 

 attains a larger size than most of the crab-apple trees. It is an 

 upright grower, when young, but with age its branches spread and 

 bend until it becomes a graceful drooping-boughed tree. Height 

 and breadth of top from twenty to thirty feet. 



THE PEAR TREE. Pyrus. 



"Ye have no history. I ask in vain 

 Who planted on the slope this lofty group 

 Of ancient pear trees, that with springtime burst 

 Into such breadth of bloom. One bears a scar 

 Where the quick lightning scored its trunk, yet still 

 It feels the breath of spring, and every May 

 Is white with blossoms. Who it was that laid 

 Their infant roots in earth, and tenderly 

 Cherished the delicate sprays, I ask in vain, 

 Yet bless the unknown hand to which I owe 

 This annual festival of bees, these songs 

 Of birds within their leafy screens, these shouts 

 Of joy from children gathering up the fruit 

 Shaken in August from the willing boughs." 



The pear is so elegant a tree, that, even if it bore no fruit, it 

 would rank high for decorative planting. The lovely green of its 

 bursting leaves, which are among the earliest to expand, must be 

 familiar to all who have ever observed trees ; while its floods of 

 clustered white blossoms make it like a snowy pyramid. Later in 

 the season its glossy foliage is surpassed by very few forest trees ; 



