70 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
of 4 to 10; flowers showy, 1 in. across, white or sometimes with tinge of pink; calyx 
persistent or rarely deciduous; styles distinct to the base, sometimes downy; stamens 15 
to 20; pedicels 1 in. long, slender, sometimes pubescent. 
Fruits exceedingly variable under cultivation; varying from 1 in. in length and diameter 
to 3 in. in diameter and 5 to 6 in. in length; variously shaped, as pyriform, turbinate, round- 
conic, or round-oblate; green, yellow, red, or russet, or combinations of these colors; flesh 
white, yellowish, sometimes pink or wine-red, rarely salmon-colored; flesh firm, melting, 
or buttery and when ripening on the tree with few or many grit-cells. Seeds 1 to 3 ina 
cell, sometimes abortive or wanting, large, brown, or brownish, often tufted at the tips. 
Pyrus communis, the common pear, as stated in the preceding chapter, 
is a native of southern Europe and southwestern Asia as far east as Kashmir. 
The species is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying from seed 
distributed by animals and by human agencies, and is now to be found 
naturalized in forests and byways of the temperate zones wherever pears 
are cultivated in orchards. The pear is not as hardy as the apple, and is, 
therefore, less generally grown. It refuses to grow in the warmest and 
coldest parts of the temperate zones, but is a favorite orchard, dooryard, 
and roadside plant in all mid-temperate regions. 
The species comes from regions or localities where the climate is mild 
and equable, neither very hot nor very cold, and grows in moist, cool, and 
rather heavy soils. These predilections cling to cultivated pears wherever 
grown, and pure-bred varieties do not thrive under other conditions. Wild 
or cultivated, the pear is a deep-rooted plant, a fact that must be taken 
- into consideration in selecting orchard sites. On shallow soils pears thrive 
better on the shallow-rooted quince. 
Few cultivated fruits have changed more under domestication than 
the common pear. The trees under cultivation are larger and much more 
vigorous, and the fruits in the best orchard varieties — the consummation 
of the breeder’s art — would by no one be considered the same species if 
the two were found in the wild. The pears from truly wild trees in the 
Old World are small, nearly round, hard, gritty, sour, and astringent. 
Fruits from the run-wild trees from the chance transport of seeds in this 
country are scarcely more attractive to either eye or palate. The product 
of these wild trees can hardly be called edible fruits. Cultivated varieties 
seem to have been evolved, until the advent of Le Conte and Kieffer, oniy 
by cultivation and selection. All plants are improved more rapidly under 
hybridization than selection, and now that the hybridization of this pear 
with other species is in full swing, we may expect, for the New World at 
least, a new pear flora in the immediate future. 
