Pyrus communis, 
THE COMMON PEAR-TREE. 
i 
Synonymes. 
Pyrus communis, 
Poirier, 
Gemeine Birne, Birnenbaum, 
Pero, 
Pereira, 
Gruschka, 
Pear-tree, 
' Linn.eus, Species Plantamm. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
' Loudon, Arboretum Britannicura. 
France. 
Germany. 
Italy and Spain. 
Portugal. 
Russia. 
Britain and Anglo- America. 
Engravings. Lindley, Pomologia Britannica; Hoffy, Orchardists' Companion : Loudon, Arboretum Britatinicum vi m. 
'66, 167, et 163; and the figures below. ' "' F 
Specific Characters. Branches and buds glabrous. Leaves ovate, serrated, glabrous upon both surface? 
Flowers corymbose. De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Description. 
" The juicy pear 
Lies in soft profusion scattered round. 
A various sweetness swells the gentle race, 
By nature's all-refining hand prepared, 
Of tempered sun and water, earth and air, 
In ever-changing composition mixed." 
[HE Common 
Pear-tree, in 
a wild state, 
has a pyra- 
midal shaped head, with thorny 
branches, at first erect, and after- 
wards pendulous or curved down- 
wards. When cultivated under fa- 
vourable circumstances, it will some- 
times attain a height of fifty or sixty 
feet, and a diameter of eighteen to thirty-six inches. The roots, which are not 
numerous, descend perpendicularly, and have but few lateral ramifications, 
except in shallow and rich soil. The leaves vary exceedingly in different soils, 
and in different parts of the globe. In Britain, and in the temperate regions of 
North America, they are generally green, slightly tomentose, and do not greatly 
vary in size ; but in the woods of Poland, and in the vast steppes of Russia, those 
of the wild pear-trees are commonly white with down, and vary so exceedingly 
in their size and forms, as to include what are called the " willow-leaved," the 
" sage-leaved," and the " narrow-leaved" varieties, which, by many, are regarded 
as species. The blossoms of the pear, which are scentless, and of a pure white, 
appear in the warmer parts of Britain, and in the southern counties of Ohio, by 
the middle of April; in Sweden, and in Massachusetts, by the 20th of May; at 
Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, the 10th of May, and at Naples, in Italy, six 
weeks earlier. The fruit, in a. wild state, is seldom more than a fourth part of 
the size of the ordinary cultivated varieties ; and is also austere and unfit to eat. 
For a comparison of this fruit with the apple, the reader is referred to our descrip- 
tion of the latter, under the head of " Pyrus mains." 
Varieties. Dc Candolle describes two forms of the wild species, comparative!) 
