24 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



A small tree not often over 25 ft. (8 m.) in height and 12 in. (0.30 m.) 

 in diameter of trunk, with spreading branches, and dark gray bark of 

 trunk which checks with age m longitudinal fissures, between which the 

 outer layers tend to roll up with difficulty at the edges. 



HABITAT. Asia is supposed to be the native home of this cherry and 



from thence introduced into Europe in ancient times, Pliny speaking of 

 it as an introduced tree in Italy as early as the beginning of the Christian 

 Era. It was brought to America at the time of our earliest settlements 

 and is now widely spread and naturalized in many places. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood moderately heavy, hard, not strong, 

 close-grained and taking a very smooth satiny polish. It is of a dark 

 reddish brown color with creamy white sap-wood. 



USES. The value of the pleasant acidulous fruit of this tree is too 

 well known to require comment. By selection and cultivation a great 

 many varieties have originated in this species and are now grown as 

 among our choicest fruits. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. Besides the wholesomeness of the fruit as 

 the laxative article of diet, no medicinal properties are recorded of this 

 species. 



GENUS PYRUS,* L. 



Leaves simple or pinnate ; stipules free. Flowers white or rose-colored in cor- 

 ymbed cymes ; calyx-tube urn-shaped, becoming thick and fleshy in the fruit, limb 

 5-cleft; petals 5, obovate or roundish ; stamens numerous; styles 5 (or sometimes 2-3), 

 and carpels (of the same number) 2-seeded, with papery or cartilaginous endocarp 

 and united with the calyx-tube. Fruit a closed pome, fleshy or berry-like. 



Trees or shrubs. (" Pyrus " is the ancient Latin name of the pear-tree.) 



83. PYRUS CORONARIA, L. 

 WILD CRAB, SWEET-SCENTED CRAB. 



Ger., Amerikanischer KirscJiapfelbaum; Fr., Pome savage de I'Amerique; 

 Sp., Manzano Americano. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves simple, ovate, rounded or sometimes heart-shaped 

 at base, cut-serrate, often sublobate, pubescent (as are the petioles, pedicels, etc.) 

 when young but finally glabrous, membranous, comparatively straight-veined, 3-4 

 in. in length and with slender petiole; stipules filiform and early deciduous. Flowers 

 appear in May, after the leaves, rose-colored, in few-flowered corymbs, about 1 in. 

 across and delightfully fragrant; sepals subulate, persistent ; petioles clawed; pistil 

 with styles united and woolly at base. 



Fruit a flattish apple, usually not more than 1 in. diameter, deeply sunken at both 

 ends, when ripe yellowish and translucent green, with waxy or greasy surface, 

 strongly fragrant and of very tart-acid flavor. 



(The specific name, coronaria, is the Latin for belonging to the garland, in allusion 

 to its delightful flowers.) 



A small tree of wide-spreading habit of growth quite similar to that 

 of the common apple, but rarely attaining 25 ft. (8 in.) in height and 



* Sometimes written Pirus. 



