No. 7. 



0?i the Blight of the Pear Tree. 



203 



to furnish it with a few of our American 

 trees, among which I have thought of a few 

 sugar maples, — such as we make sugar 

 from in Ohio, — hickory, (shell-bark, &c.), 

 and our black walnut (fir), — tiiere is abund- 

 ance of what is called the white or English 

 walnut here (regia), — oak, magnolia (that 

 flowers), — I have seen the latter in Ohio, 

 where it is much colder than here, — beech, 

 tulip-tree, sassafras, catalpa, cranberry, &,c. 

 All of these, I believe, are wholly unknown 

 here. The poplar, elm, persimmon, horse- 

 chestnut, scrub-green oak, linden, and the 

 usual fruit trees, (none of them very good,) 

 are abundant, and, in thevvoods, tiie arbutus 

 is common and very pretty. 



"I may mention, that the climate here is 

 very mild. There are snows during our 

 winter, which commences in January and 

 ends in April; but they last but a day or so, 

 and soon melt away. The atmosphere dur- 

 ing the winter and spring is very damp and 

 chilly, and fires are indispensable. We have 

 no good apples about here, near; but the 

 cherries, plums, (large as hen's eggs, red, 

 blue, and white,) and pears are good; so are 

 the peaches; but neither of the two last are 

 to be compared to ours of the United States. 

 Of course, the grapes are excellent, — gene- 

 rally of a large white kind called Tehauch 

 grapes; the large blue are also good, but too 

 fleshy. Figs are also good, but not so abund- 

 ant as in Smyrna. Almonds grow well here, 

 English walnuts, filberts, chesnuts, — large 

 but not very sweet, — and large strawberries 

 in abundance. Medlars and persimmons 

 grow here ; the latter are from Trebizonde 

 on the Black Sea, and here bear the name of 

 Trebizonde dates. Among the garden orna- 

 mental trees, I may mention the acacia, of 

 two kinds, — the one bearing small yellow 

 flowers of a strong rich odor, and the other 

 producing a light-red flower, like a floss of 

 silk, and is called by the Turks ' Gul Ibra- 

 sAim,' or, the 'Rose-silk tassel tree.' The 

 Turks have much taste for flowers, and their 

 summer-houses are much ornamented about 

 the steps with choice flowers in pots, and 

 their gardens look beautiful to the passer-by. 

 JVIy office of interpreter to the legation leads 

 me frequently to these summer retreats, and 

 I cnnnot tell you how much I admire the 

 taste shown for natural embellishments by 

 those whom the world regards as scarcely 

 half civilized. 



" I was last autumn at Erzeroom, not far 

 from the Persian frontier, where I procured 

 a few flower-seeds, among which is the 

 'Morina Orientalis,' peculiar to that place, 

 and named, by the French traveller Tourne- 

 fort, after a friend in Paris. I havesentsome 

 of the seeds to the American Oriental So- 



ciety, of your city, of which I am a member, 

 for the Horticultural Society. I have some 

 fruit kernels, and other seeds, which I will 

 send you from Smyrna, with a few of this 

 same Morina, and I beg you to try it. The cli- 

 mate of Erzeroom is cold, and the soil, where 

 it grows, poor and s*ony; and on that side 

 near its base, there is a beautifiil crimson 

 flower, the stalk about two feet and a half 

 high. It is an annual. I will try and pro- 

 cure for you some cherry seeds from Ceras- 

 sum, the country on the shores of the Black 

 Sea, from which place cherries are said to 

 have their origin. I do not hope to furnish 

 you with any thing belter than you already 

 possess, but to give you some varieties. 

 Yours, J. P. B., 

 Legation of the United Stales of America, 

 Constantinople, Oct. 8. 1847. 



On the Blight of the Pear Tree. 



It seems to have been taken for granted, 

 by many persons, that the pear tree is sub- 

 ject only to one kind of blight Hence have 

 arisen the conflicting theories and specula- 

 tions that have been published on this sub- 

 ject. Having no theory to maintain, and no 

 speculations to offer, but such as are founded 

 on facts, I propose to show that insect-blight 

 is a disease distinct from Jire-blig ht and fro- 

 zen sap-blight. 



By the term insect-blight, as here used, 

 must be understood the sudden withering of 

 the leaves, and the death of the limbs of the 

 pear tree in summer, occasioned by the in- 

 ternal attacks of one or more of the insects, 

 called Scolylus Pyri by Professor Peck. 

 This kind of blight is common in New-Eng- 

 land; but it does not appear to exist, or to 

 have been observed, in the western states, 

 where, however, blights of the pear tree, 

 somewhat similar in progress, and equally 

 fatal in termination, prevail more or less 

 every year. Blights, which are not the re- 

 sult of insect attacks, inasmuch as insects 

 have never been detected in the blighted 

 limbs, occasionally afl^ect pear trees in New 

 England. Some of my own trees have been 

 thereby destroyed ; and the most careful ex- 

 amination has failed to disclose any trace of 

 insect depredation in them. On the other 

 hand, numerous opportunities for seeing the 

 effects of insect blight, and of dissecting 

 specimens of Scolytus Pyri from the blight- 

 ed limbs, enable me to declare confidently 

 that the diseases are specifically distinct from 

 each other; as much so as small-pox and 

 measles. It is not my purpose to discuss the 

 question, whether fire-blight and fozen sap- 

 blight, or winter-blight, be identical ; the 

 contrast between them and insect-blight be- 

 ing what is now to be attempted. 



