XVI 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF PEARS 



IN the classification of pears we meet the 

 same difficulties which we have already met 

 in dealing with apples, only in the present 

 case they are even more pronounced. As 

 compared with apples, pears have never been 

 at all well known in America. They have 

 been comparatively unpopular. It is very 

 rare to find a good judge of varieties of pears, 

 even among the most expert pomologists of 

 the country. 



In recent years Kieffer, Le Conte, and 

 Garber pears particularly the first have 

 been extensively disseminated. These are 

 doubtless hybrids, combining the characters 

 of two species, Pyrus communis and Pyrus 

 sinensis. They have characters, therefore, 

 considerably different from the ordinary gar- 

 den pears, which are derived directly from 

 Pyrus communis. This difference in botan- 

 ical characters has been the commonly accept- 

 ed basis of classification in recent nursery 

 catalogs and similar publications. Pears of 



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