438 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Pyrus coronaria, 



The Crab-Apple of North-America. This showy species is men- 

 tioned here as worthy of trial-culture, since it is likely that it would 

 serve well as stock for grafting. Best grown in glades. Wood nearly 

 as tough for screw-work as that of the pear-tree [Robb]. 



Pyrus communis, Linn.* 



The Pear-tree. Middle and Southern Europe. Western Asia. 

 Well known even at the time of Homer. Introduced into Britain 

 already by the Romans, and many varieties were cultivated in Italy 

 at the commencement of the Christian era ; pears were avail- 

 able also to the lacustrine people of Switzerland. Lombardy and 

 Savoy, but seemingly not so extensively as the apple. Prof. C. 

 Koch regards the Chinese Pyrus Achras (Graertner), which is the 

 oldest name for P. Chinensis of Desfontaines and Lindley, as the 

 wild plant from which all our cultivated varieties of pears have 

 originated. The pear-tree is cultivated up to 10,000 feet in the 

 Himalayas ; like the apple-tree, it sets no fruit in tropical lowlands, 

 but on the other hand it will bear a good deal of frost, being grown 

 in Norway to lat 63 5.2', and still bearing fruit there. It needs a 

 deeply pervious soil, more so than the Apple-tree. In Victoria 

 defoliation takes place in May, perfection of new foliage in October. 

 The tree attains an age of over 300 years, fully bearing. At 

 Yarmouth a tree over a 100 years old has borne as many as 26,800 

 pears in a year ; the circumference of its crown is 126 feet. A 

 Huffcap Pear-tree at Hadley, in Worcestershire, yielded two hogs- 

 heads of perry in each year for a lengthened period [Masters]. Pear- 

 wood is used by wood-engravers, turners, and instrument-makers. 

 A bitter glycosid, namely phlorrhizin, is obtainable from the bark of 

 apple- and pear-trees, particularly from that of the root ; while a 

 volatile alkaloid, namely trimethylamin, can be prepared from the 

 flowers. Pyrus auricularis, Knoop (P. Polveria, L.), the Bollwiller- 

 Pear, is a hybrid between P. communis and P. Aria, Ehrhart. 

 Curious fruits have been produced latterly in North- America by the 

 hybridization of the apple with the pear. Hybridization of the 

 Pear-tree with the Quince-tree has hitherto not produced superior 

 fruit in either direction. The Chinese and Japanese Sand-Pear 

 furnishes excellent stock for grafting [E. Goeze]. The Muscatel- 

 Pear is particularly sought by confectioners [Mathieu]. Pears for 

 preserving should be halved, boiled 20 minutes with 6 ounces of 

 sugar to a quart of water [Shelton]. From the variety "Le Conte" 

 pears to the weight of 27 ounces have been raised in Texas. The 

 generic writing of Pirus is inadmissible, as even Plinius used both 

 Pirus and Pyrus in his writings, and as the latter wording was already 

 adopted by Malpighi and fixed Ar the genus by Linne. The flowers of 

 all the leading European fruit-trees afford nectar for honey to bees. To 

 subdue the Fusicladium-rust or scale on pears and apples, the trees, 

 just after flowering, should be syringed with a solution in the propor- 

 tion of 1 Ib. sulphate of copper, 1 Ib. of slaked lime, and 4 gallons of 



