316 THE PEAR. 



purely ornamental. One, however, is a remarkable exception 

 to this, as it is scarcely exceeded in beauty in the month of 

 May by any other flowery shrub we mean the DOUBLE FLOW- 

 ERING SLOE. It is a large shrub, only 10 or 12 feet high, with 

 quite slender shoots and leaves, but it is thickly sprinkled, every 

 spring, with the prettiest little double white blossoms about as 

 large as a sixpence, but resembling the Lady Banks' roses. It 

 is one of the greatest favourites of the Chinese and Japanese 

 those flower-loving people. 



The COMMON ENGLISH SLOE, or Blackthorn, (Prunus spinosa,) 

 is rather an ornamental tree in shrubbery plantations. The 

 branches are more thorny than those of the common damson, 

 and the fruit is nearly round, quite black, but covered with a 

 thick blue bloom. In the spring, this low tree is a perfect cloud 

 of white blossoms. 



The DOUBLE-BLOSSOMED PLUM has large and handsome, 

 double white flowers. Except in strong soils, however, they 

 are apt to degenerate and become single, and are, 'indeed, always 

 inferiour in effect to the Double Sloe. 



The Cherry Plum we have already described. It is one of 

 the fruit bearing sorts. 



1. Selection of choice varieties for a small garden. Royal 

 Heitive, Hudson Gage, Green Gage, Jefferson, Lawrence's Fa- 

 vourite, Ruling's Superb, Purple Favourite, Purple Gage, Coe's 

 Golden Drop. 



2. Plums thdt will bear well in light soils, and generally with- 

 stand the curculio. Lombard, Cruger's, Blue Gage, Roe's Au- 

 tumn Gage, Red Gage, Long Scarlet, Bleecker's Gage, Coe's 

 Golden Drop, and all the Damsons. 



3. Plums suitable for a cold northern climate. Smith's Or- 

 leans, Bleecker's Gage, Denniston's Superb, Corse's Nota Bene, 

 Orleans, Cruger's Scarlet, Washington, Duane's Purple. 



4. Plums suitable for a southern climate. Bingham, Imperial 

 Gage, Washington, Large Long Blue, Huling's Superb, Coe's 

 Late Red, Coe's Golden Drop. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE PEAR. 



Pyrus communis, L. Rosacea, of botanists. 

 Foirier, of the French ; Birnebaum, German ; Peer, Dutch ; Pero, Italian ; and 



Pera, Spanish. 



THE Pear is, undeniably, the favourite fruit of modern times, 

 and modern cultivators. Indeed, we believe the Pear of modern 



