20 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



A tree usually of pyramidal shape, and under most favorable condi- 

 tions sometimes attaining the height of 50 ft. (15 m.) with a trunk 2 ft. 

 (O.GO m.) or more in diameter. 



In its wild, native state it is a small thorny tree with leaves more 

 markedly serrate and sometimes pubescent, and its small fruit austere and 

 not eatable. It has been vastly improved by cultivation, and innumer. 

 able forms now exist in all temperate climes bearing delicious fruit in 

 endless variety. 



HABITAT. The wild pear, which is the common parent of the many 

 cultivated forms, is a native of Europe and the temperate portions of 

 Asia. In this country the tree is found occasionally escaped from cultiva- 

 tion and growing self-sown in pastures and ravines, showing that it is thor- 

 oughly naturalized. The fruit from these trees is of very inferior quality. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather light, hard, very close-grained 

 and taking a satiny polish. It is of a chocolate-brown color with 

 abundant pinkish-white sap-wood. 



USES. Little need be said of the utility of this important fruit tree, 

 the delicious fruit of which is too well known to require comment. 



The wood is said to be usecl in Europe to some extent for coarse wood- 

 engraving, in turnery and for joiner's tools. It is also useful for furni- 

 ture and makes excellent fuel. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not officinally recognized of this species, 

 but it is said that " Pears were considered by the Romans as an antidote 

 to the effect of eating poisonous mushrooms; and up to the present 

 time perry is said to be the best remedy that can be employed for the 

 same purpose."* 



NOTE. The longevity, growth and productiveness of the Pear tree in 

 the Old World must greatly surpass what we see in this country, as we 

 find mention of one tree " upwards of a century old and which in the 

 season of 1826 bore one ton of pears/' Again we read of an extraordinary 

 tree in its prime in the latter part of the last century, " growing on the 

 glebe land of the parish of Hon. Lacey [near Hereford, England] that 

 more than once filled fifteen hogsheads with perry in the same year." f 



GENUS CRATAEGUS, L. 



Leaves simple and generally lobed; stipules free, and, as with the awl-shaped 

 bracts, deciduous. Flowers mostly in corymbs, white or rarely rose-colored; calyx 

 urn shaped with limb 5-cleft, persistent; petals roundish; ovaries 1-5, inferior; 

 styles as many as the ovaries. Fruit a fleshy, drupe-like pome containing 1-5 hard 

 1-seeded carpels and bearing on its summit the persistent calyx-lobes. 



Small trees and shrubs armed with thorns, and petioles, calyx-teeth, etc., often 

 besft with glands. 



(Crataegus is from the Greek Kpdro 1 -,, strength, in allusion to the nature of the 

 wood.) 



*The Trees of America, by D. J. Browne, p. 295. 

 *fThe Trees of America, by D. J. Browne, p. 289. 



