DECIDUOUS TREES. 35 



make the tree highly ornamental when planted by itself, and 

 still more so when it is the foreground of a cluster of spruces or 

 pines. It does not grow of sufficient size for a street or park 

 shade tree, but for small grounds and for narrow roads and 

 paths in cemeteries it is admirably adapted. It may be, and 

 usually is, grown with a single stem, with its branches thrown 

 out at three or four feet from the ground ; but on lawns or grass 

 plots, and as connected with evergreens, it is much handsomer 

 if permitted to throw out a number of stems directly from the 

 crown, as represented in our engraving. 



The American variety (pyrus Americana) does not make quite 

 as large a tree as the European, but is more abundant in the 

 numbers of its flowers and fruits ; the latter, however, are not 

 quite as brilliant in color. 



The sorb or service tree {pyrus sorbus) and the white beam 

 tree (2>yrus aria) are two additional varieties of occasional use ; 

 the former because of the tree attaining a larger size, and there- 

 fore better suited to some positions, and also to the fact that its 

 fruit, when frosted and in a state of partial decay, is by some 

 regarded as pleasantly palatable. 



The white beam grows very compact, and its leaves being deep 

 green on the upper side and nearly white underneath, when 

 ruffled by the wind present at times a pleasing contrast with 

 the clear green of evergreens and other trees with which it may 

 be grouped. 



A variety of mountain ash (qucrcifolia) introduced within a 

 few years past, with foliage resembling the oak, claims, however, 

 a first place when only oi\e tree is to be planted. Its growth is 

 as rapid as any variety, form very regular and symmetrical, with 

 foliage lobed like the oak, and bearing flowers and fruit quite 

 as freely as any of the varieties. 



There are also a number of other sorts, as the elder-leaved, 

 pear-leaved, golden-striped, etc., that are each curious and beau- 



