1857.] PYRUS DOMESTICA. 89 



happily the changes are generally from rain to snow, and from snow 

 to hard frost, — or in other words, it rains all summer and snows 

 or freezes all winter. This we have heard ; " but Fame, I ween, 

 says many things in sport. ^^ Sed crecle experto : we were there 

 in summer, and can recommend top-coats, leggings, if waterproof 

 the better, flannel waistcoats, worsted stockings, thick shoes, and 

 more than two pairs, and the use of a good fire where it is pro- 

 curable, where it is not, a good allowance of blankets will do 

 quite as well. 



PYEUS DOMESTICA, Sm. 



In reply to Beta's question in the last number of the ' Phyto- 

 logist' (vol. ii. p. 71), I may say that, while drawing attention to 

 Parkinson's statement of the introduction of Pyrus domestica 

 into this country, I wished botanists to form their own conclu- 

 sions as to how far it applied to the Wyre Forest tree. I have 

 never had the pleasure of visiting Wyre Forest, and therefore, 

 perhaps, am hardly justified in expressing a decided opinion on 

 the age of the tree in question ; but I cannot help thinking that 

 it is greatly over-estimated by some writers. It must not be 

 forgotten that the tree is in a state of premature decay, owing to 

 the barbarous treatment it has received at the ruthless hands of 

 curiosity-hunters. Bearing this in mind, and taking the speci- 

 mens mentioned in the ' Phytologist,' n. s., vol. i. p. 197, as 

 guides, it seems not unreasonable to conclude that the age of the 

 Wyre Forest tree does not exceed two hundred years. If one of 

 these trees, whose dimensions are given, and whose age is esti- 

 mated at two hundred years, may be taken as a fair specimen of 

 the dimensions attained by the species in a couple of centuries, 

 our Wyre Forest specimen has never approached the size of a 

 full-grown tree of its kind. For while the tree alluded to pos- 

 sessed a trunk of three feet four inches in diameter, that in Wyre 

 Forest had attained to only one foot nine inches. On the whole, 

 therefore, I cannot see anything in what has been published re- 

 specting this remarkable tree, to negative the supposition that it 

 has descended from one of those introduced by John Tradescant. 

 Beta has, inadvertently, referred my quotation of its introduction 



N. S. VOL. II. N 



