262 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



house, about 25 years since. The thicket was cut 

 down and the ground cultivated some two or three 

 years ; culture being discontinued, another crab 

 thicket sprang up, and when bearing, one tree (the 



Fig. 49. Soulard crab. 



Pyrus Soulardi. Five-eighths 



natural size. 



identical kind now called Soulard crab) was dis- 

 covered. The fruit astonished me by its remarkably 

 large size, being sent to me by a friend whose 

 widowed mother, Mrs. Freeman Delauriere, occupied 

 the farm. I immediately propagated by grafting upon 

 crab stock and upon our common seedlings. Upon 



