XLIII. 
THE COMMON OR WILD PEAR TREE. 
THE Common Pear Tree: Pyrus communis (L.)—This tree 
belongs to Icosandria Di-Pentagynia of the Linnean system, 
and to the natural order Rosacee. It is a native of many 
parts throughout Britain. Nurserymen grow not only the 
seeds of the wild tree for stocks on which to engraft the 
various kinds of valuable pears, but the seeds of the culti- 
vated garden varieties are also employed for the same pur- 
pose. This has given rise to an endless number of varieties, 
none of which ultimately attain to the size of very large timber 
trees ; but their rapid growth when young is seldom sur- 
passed by any other forest tree, and the varieties are all quite 
hardy. 
Mode of Propagation—The seeds of the common or wild 
tree, and that of all cultivated pears, if picked out of ripe 
fruit and immediately sown, will come up during the first 
spring ; but if the seeds are allowed to become quite dry, 
and are kept till spring and then sown, a great proportion of 
the crop frequently lies dormant, and only appears above 
ground in the following spring. 
The soil should be a deep rich loam. Manure has a power- 
ful influence in advancing the growth of the plants. A pound 
weight of fresh clean seed is sufficient for fifteen lineal yards 
of a bed four feet wide, and the cover should be about half 
an inch deep. One-year seedlings are often upwards of a foot 
high, and proportionally stout. 
