XXVI. ROSA CEM: PY'RUS. 44? 
Genus XX. 
¥ [pl all 
PY'RUS Lindl Tue Pear Tree. Lin. Syst. Icosindria Di-Pentagynia. 
Identification. Lindl. Lin. Soc. Tr., 13. p. 97.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 633.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 605. 
Synonymes. P¥rus Malus, and Sérbus, Tourn. ; P¥rus and Sérbus Lin.; Pyréphorum and Apy 
réphorum Neck. 
Gen. Char. Calyx with an urceolate tube, and a 5-lobed limb. Petals 
roundish. Styles usually 5, rarely 2 or 3. Pome closed, 5-celled. Puta- 
men cartilaginous. Seeds 2 in each cell. Testa cartilaginous. (Don’s Mill.) 
Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous, or sometimes sub-ever- 
green ; entire, serrated, or pinnately divided. Flowers numerous, in 
cymes. Bracteas subulate, deciduous. 
Low trees, and some shrubs; almost all deciduous; natives of Europe, 
Asia, and North America, Some of them are in great estimation throughout 
the world for their fruit ; and others are cultivated chiefly for their flowers. 
Under the genus Pyrus, botanists have lately united the Linnzan genera 
Pyrus and Sorbus, together with several species formerly included under 
Méspilus, Cratz‘gus, and other genera. 
Some of the species of Pyrus are, and have been for ages, the most univer- 
sally cultivated of all ligneous plants ; the apple and the pear being highly 
esteemed fruits, both in the temperate and transition zones of both hemi- 
spheres. These, and all the species of the genus, are propagated by grafting 
on the wild varieties of each division. 
§1. Pyréphorum Dec. 
Sect. Char. Petals spreading, flat. Styles 5, distinct. Pome more or less 
top-shaped, or subglobose, without a concavity at the base. Pedicels simple, 
umbeled. Leaves simple, not glanded. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 633.) This sec- 
tion comprehends all the pears, properly so called. 
#1. P.commu‘nis L. The common Pear Tree. 
Identification. nn. Sp., 686.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 633.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 605. 
Synonymes. P. A’chras Gertn. Fruct.2. p. 44. t. 87.; P. sylvéstris Dod. Pempt. 800.; Pyraster 
Ray Syn. 452. ; Poirier, Fr.; gemeine Birne, or Birnebaum, Ger.; Pero domestico, Ital.; Pera, 
Span. ; and Gruschka, Russzan. ¢ ~ 
Engravings. Blackw. Herb., t. 453.; Eng. Bot., t. 1784.; the plate of this species in Arb, Brit., 
lst edit., vol. vi. ; and our fig. 761. 
Spec. Char.,§c. Branches and buds glabrous. Leaves ovate, serrated, gla- 
brous upon both surfaces. Flowers corymbose. (Dec. Prod.) A deciduous 
tree of the middle size. Europe, in woods and waste places, from the east 
of Russia to the west of England. Height 30 ft. to 50 ft. rarely 70 ft. In cul- 
tivation from time immemorial. Flowers white, never tinged with pink like 
those of the apple; April and May. Fruit in a wild state green, turning 
vellowish in November. Decaying leaves rich yellow or reddish yellow. 
Varieties. DeCandolle mentions two forms of the wild species, compara- 
tively permanent ; to which we have added several others, the result of cul- 
tivation, and which are more or less accidental or temporary. ‘To these we 
might have subjoined a class of wild pears with hoary leaves, such as P. 
nivalis, P. salicifolia, &c., which we consider as varieties, or races, though 
commonly treated as species ; but we have preferred giving them afterwards 
as distinct sorts. 
¥ P.c. 1 Avchras Wallr. Sched. p.213.— Spiny. Leaves woolly when 
young, but afterwards glabrous; the disk ovate, acuminate, entire ; 
the petiole long. Tube of the calyx woolly when young, afterwards 
becoming glabrous. Pome with its basal part long. 
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