xxvi. ROSA^CEJE: PY^RUS. 417 



GENUS XX. 



PY'RUS Lindl THE PEAR TREE. Lin. Syst. Icosandria Di-Pentagynia. 



Identification. Lindl. Lin. Soc. Tr., 13. p. 97. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 633. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 605. 

 Synonymes. Pfrus Mains, and Sdrbus, Town. ; .Pyrus and SOrbus Lin. ; PyrOphorum and Apy- 

 r6phorum Neck. 



Gen. Char. Calyx with an urceolate tube, and a 5-lobed limb. Petals 

 roundish. Styles usually 5, rarely 2 or 3. Pome closed, 5-celled. Puta- 

 men cartilaginous. Seeds 2 in each cell. Testa cartilaginous. (Don's Mill.} 

 Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous, or sometimes sub-ever- 

 green ; entire, serrated, or pinnately divided. Flowers numerous, in 

 cymes. Bracteas subulate, deciduous. 



Low trees, and some shrubs ; almost all deciduous ; natives of Europe, 

 Asia, and North America. Some of them are in great estimation throughout 

 the world for their fruit ; and others are cultivated chiefly for their flowers. 

 Under the genus Pyrus, botanists have lately united the Linnaean genera 

 Pyrus and Sorbus, together with several species formerly included under 

 -Mespilus, Cratae v gus, and other genera. 



Some of the species of Pyrus are, and have been for ages, the most univer- 

 sally cultivated of all ligneous plants ; the apple and the pear being highly 

 esteemed fruits, both in the temperate and transition zones of both hemi- 

 spheres. These, and all the species of the genus, are propagated by grafting 

 on the wild varieties of each division. 



i. Pyrophorum Dec. 



Sect. Char. Petals spreading, flat. Styles 5, distinct. Pome more or less 

 top-shaped, or subglobose, without a concavity at the base. Pedicels simple, 

 umbeled. Leaves simple, not glanded. (Dec. Prod. y ii. p. 633.) This sec- 

 tion comprehends all the pears, properly so called. 



3f 1. P. COMMU X NIS L. The common Pear Tree. 



Identification. JLinn. Sp., 686. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 633. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 605. 



Synonymes. P. A'chrns Gcertn. Fruct. 2. p. 44. t. 87. ; P. sylvestris Dod. Pempt. 800. ; Pyraster 



Ray Syn. 452. ; Poirier, Fr. ; gemeine Birne, or Birnebaum, Ger. ; Pero domestico, Ital. ; Pera, 



Span. ; and Gruschka, Russian. 

 Engravings. Blackw. Herb., t. 453. ; Eng. Bot., t. 1784. ; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., 



1st edit, vol. vi. ; and our Jig. 761. 



Spec. Char.y $c. Branches and buds glabrous. Leaves ovate, serrated, gla- 

 brous upon both surfaces. Flowers corymbose. (Dec. Prod.) A deciduous 

 tree of the middle size. Europe, in woods and waste places, from the east 

 of Russia to the west of England. Height 30 ft. to 50 ft. rarely 70 ft. In cul- 

 tivation from time immemorial. Flowers white, never tinged with pink like 

 those of the apple ; April and May. Fruit in a wild state green, turning 

 yellowish in November. Decaying leaves rich yellow or reddish yellow. 



Varieties. DeCandolle mentions two forms of the wild species, compara- 

 tively permanent ; to which we have added several others, the result of cul- 

 tivation, and which are more or less accidental or temporary. To these we 

 might have subjoined a class of wild pears with hoary leaves, such as P. 

 nivalis, P. salicifolia, &c., which we consider as varieties, or races, though 

 commonly treated as species ; but we have preferred giving them afterwards 

 as distinct sorts. 



P. c. 1 A^chras Wallr. Sched. p. 213. Spiny. Leaves woolly when 

 young, but afterwards glabrous ; tire disk ovate, acuminate, entire ; 

 the petiole long. Tube of the calyx woolly when young, afterwards 

 becoming glabrous. Pome with its basal part long. 

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