PYRUS 



PYRUS 



1471 



It is little prized for its fruit, although the pears are useful 

 for preserving and some of the varieties are showy and 

 the fruits are good keepers; it is used for stocks upon 

 which to work the common Pear, and it has given good 

 results in hybridizing. It is an excellent ornamental 

 tree, being a clean grower of great vigor. Kleffer, 

 Le Conte and others are hybrids of P. communis and 

 P. SineHsis (Figs. 1681-3). This type has a stronger 

 growth than the common Pears, the leaves are usually 

 broader and darker green, with closely and mostly ob- 

 tusely serrate edges, the fruit is more or less pyriform 

 and of better flavor than that of P. Sinensis, and the 

 calyx is either persistent or deciduous. Seedlings of 

 Kieffer often produce the sharply toothed leaves of P. 

 Sinensis. 



4. salicifdlia, Pall. Small tree, becoming 20 ft. tall: 

 Ivs. willow-like (whence the name), linear-lanceolate or 

 lanceolate, obtuse or short-acuminate, entire or very 

 nearly so, hoary beneath: fls. white, in corymbs, short- 

 pedicelled: fr. round-pyriform, short-stemmed, yellow 

 or greenish. Siberia. G.C. II. 14:145. A showy spring- 

 flowering small tree, hardy in the northern states, and 

 worthy of being better knovn. 



5. The following species of the section Pyrophorum (Pears) 

 may be expected to appear in the trade, and some of them are 

 now growing in private collections in this country. P. auricu- 

 laris, Knoop (P. Pollveria, Linn. P. Bollwylleriana, DC.). 

 Differs from the Pear in having softer more irregular Ivs., 

 which are deeply serrate and sometimes almost jagged, pubes- 

 cent beneath at maturity: fr. small (%-l/^ in. long), pyriform, 

 orange-red, hard and usually austere. Long ago discovered in 

 cultivation in France. Regarded as a hybrid, probably of P. 

 communis and P. Aria (see Sorbus). Commonly planted in 

 European collections. B.R. 17:1437. L.B.C. 11:1009. P. amyg- 

 daliformis, Vill. Much like P. nivalis, but the Ivs. broad-el- 

 liptic or lance-elliptic and at maturity nearly or quite glabrous 

 beneath: fls. white: fr. small and green, hard, top-shaped. S.E. 

 Eu. and Asia. B. R. 18:1484 (as P. nivalis). P. betulifdlia, 

 Bunge. Tree, to 20 ft.: Ivs. ovate-acuminate, long-stalked, 

 sharp-serrate, becoming shining green above, pale tomentose 

 beneath: fls. white, % in. across: fr. nearly globular, size of a 

 pea. brown and dotted, the calyx falling. N. China. Hardy in 

 N.England. R.H. 1879, pp. 318, 319. G.F. 7:225. A.F. 13:1396. 

 Gng. 6:309. A worthy plant for ornament, bearing a profusion 

 of fls. in advance of the Ivs. P. Bollwylleriana, DC. See P. 

 auricularis, above. P. elceagrifblia. Pall. Small spiny tree, the 

 young shoots tomentose: Ivs. lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 

 short-acuminate, entire, usually silky-tomentose: fls. small, on 

 densely toraentose pedicels: fr. globose-turbinate. glabrous, 

 the calyx persistent. Caucasus, S. Russia. Var. Kotschyana, 

 Boiss. (P. Kotschyana, Boiss ), is usually spineless, the foliage 

 larger (3 in. long), the fr. larger (about 1 in. in diam.) and glo- 

 bose. The specific name was first written, by Pallas, eleeagri- 

 folia (not elaeagnifolia), because he considered elaeagrus to be 

 the proper spelling of the name of the oleaster genus, it having 

 been spelled that way by Dioscorides. P. heterophylla, Regel 



Linn.=P. auricularis, above./*. Ninaica, Thouin, is referred to 

 P. amygdaliformis by Boissier. P. Tschonoskii, Maxim. Tree, 

 30-40 ft.: Ivs. ovate acuminate, coarsely serrate, with sharp 

 teeth, shining and pilose above, somewhat tomentose beneath: 

 fr. obovoid; calyx-lobes persistent, white-tomentose, 1 in. or 

 less in diam., yellow with a rosy cheek. Japan. G.F. 7:55. 

 Sargent, Forest PI. Japan U. 



2024. Pyrus baccata (XX). 

 See No. 9. 



AA. MALUS, THE APPLES: fr. usually without grit-cells; 



styles usually united at the base. 



B. Oriental (Old World) species: Ivs. mostly finely 

 and evenly serrate and not lobed except on strong 

 shoots: calyx either persistent on the fr. or ca- 

 ducous. 

 C. Calyx deciduous, leaving the apex of the fr. naked. 



(Figs. 2023, 2024.) 



D. Lvs. on summer shoots more or less lobed. 

 6. Torfngo, Sieb. (P. Sieboldii, Regel, not Carr.). 

 TORINGO or DWARF CRAB. Fig. 2023. Shrub or dwarf 

 tree, nearly glabrous: Ivs. ovate or oblong-ovate in 

 outline, bright dark green above and thinly pubescent 

 below, becoming colored in the fall, strongly notched or 

 lobed on either side at or below the middle, the middle 

 lobe often notched again near the top, the remaining 

 margins sharply dentate: fls. small, white or blush, on 

 slender stems : f r. the size of a pea, shedding its calyx. 

 Japan. R.H. 1870:451; 1881, p. 296. Gn. 34, p. 206. 



2025. 

 Pyrus Malus. the apple. 



& Schmalh. Small tree, with very variable foliage, some plants 

 "having Ivs. that are smooth at the margin: others are slit and 

 almost of thread-like form; but the majority exhibit forms in- 

 termediate between thes^ two extremes." Lvs. usually ovate 

 in outline, but mostly pinnatifid and the segments again 

 toothed. K. Turkestan. G.C. III. 7:115.-P. Michauxii, Bosc, 

 is referred to P -imygdaliformis, by Boissier. P. Pollveria, 



93 



M.D.G. 1899:456. Carriere, "Pommiers Microcarpes," 

 pp. 43,62. Grown mostly f or ornament,but lately recom- 

 mended as a hardy stock upon which to dwarf the 

 Apple. In Japan, the little fruits are gathered after frost 

 and preserved. Upon the fruit-spurs, the leaves are 

 sometimes only toothed, but upon barren or strong 



