THE PEAR TREE. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



HEN in winter-time the trees are leafless one may still 

 study with delight the wonderful gradations in size of 

 the woody parts, from the massive bole step by step to 

 the maze of small twigs at the extremities. But the 

 pleasure is not the same in all cases, and the Pear-tree is a particularly 

 unsatisfying instance. It has a trunk which from the size of the 

 lower part seems destined to. support a tall tree ; but this tapers away 

 suddenly to a mere undignified wisp, that can only suggest a carrot 

 root, or a child's drawing brought hastily to a finish because the page 

 will not contain the magnificent intention of the first design. And 

 there is the same odd inconsistency about the structure of the tree 

 in another respect. The branches near the summit are often upright, 

 while the lower boughs are drooping : they form beautiful patterns 

 in themselves, but are out of harmony with the whole. The 

 leaves are lightly hung on their stalks, and the large bunches of white 

 flowers, so anxiously scanned for their promise of fruit, are an 

 ornament to the garden in their brief season. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



In its most usual form the Pear Tree is from twenty to forty 

 feet in height. An upright trunk, sometimes spirally fluted, remains 

 undivided for half the height of the tree, and then separates into 



several boughs. One of these cont 



limes 



m the same upright direction, 



tapering ofl into a point in the manner already described ; the others, 

 which are short and stout, soon ramify into a number of long thin 



