The Pear. 39 



blossom anew in the autumn, but then abnormally, the 

 flowers coming out, not according to pear-law, upon 

 " spurs," but at the extremity of long wood-shoots of the 

 current year. 



Seedling pears take a much longer time to become 

 fruitful than seedling apples; they require, it is said, 

 fifteen to eighteen years. This may be connected, in 

 some degree, with the long lease of life, the duration of 

 the pear being equal to that of many timber-trees. 

 Maturity established, it enters, more remarkably than 

 most other trees, upon a kind of middle period, corres- 

 ponding to that beautiful table-land of human existence 

 which, by keeping up a cheerful heart, never descending 

 to " envy, hatred, and malice," may be extended almost 

 indefinitely, old age acquired without growing old. There 

 is another curious point of likeness. Every one knows 

 that the people best adapted to ornament " Society " are 

 precisely those who can most easily dispense with it, and 

 who find profound satisfaction amid the tranquillities of 

 home. So with the pear. Many plants, as heather and 

 the bluebells, call for companions : they are never seen 

 except as elements of huge assemblages of their own 

 kind. The peculiarity, on the other hand, of the pear, 

 like that of the wayside agrimony, is that solitude suits it 

 quite as well as the crowd, even more so. Yet under 

 cultivation, rejoicing always where the amenities are, how 

 it loves a sunny house-front ! one of those sweet old- 

 fashioned country mansions with the ancient gables, 

 where the fruit may be reached through the lattice. In 



