THE PEAR. 417 
cartilaginous case, and there are usually two 
seeds in each cell. 
Pyrus communis, in its wild state, is found 
ordinarily at low elevations where the soil is dry, 
and seldom on hills or mountains, and is not often 
found growing in large groups, but rather singly. 
Its trunk rarely exceeds a foot and a half in 
diameter, though the Tree grows sometimes to a 
great age—its age, however, being ordinarily 
greater under cultivation than when growing 
wild, and its fruitfulness increasing with its age. 
Instances are on record of Pear-Trees which have 
lived more than four hundred years. 
The timber of Pyrus communis is close, fine- 
grained, and heavy, having a slight tinge of red. 
As it readily takes a stain—more particularly of 
black—it is used for imitating ebony and other 
wood. It also makes good charcoal. Pear leaves, 
too, can be made to produce a yellow dye. 
A peculiarity of the roots of the Pear is, that 
they descend perpendicularly into the earth, so 
that when under cultivation the Tree can be 
planted in fields without any danger that its 
roots will interfere with the plough when the soil 
