134 FAMILIAR TREES 
the varieties. The leaves are always acutely pointed, 
though the apex varies from an abrupt point (“ cuspi- 
date”) to a long and tapering one (“acuminate ”), 
They turn black when dried. 
By about the middle of April the Pear-trees of 
our suburban orchards ought, in favourable seasons, 
to spread over the landscape the snowy sheet of their 
full bloom. The flowers, however, continue for some 
time, lasting generally until about the middle of the 
following month, thus preceding the warmer-tinted 
Apple-blossom by about a fortnight. Though the 
flowers of the Pear are as “ precocious” in their first 
appearance on the bare branches as those of the 
Blackthorn, the white mass of bloom is soon relieved 
by a delicate background of tender green. The 
flowers are grouped in flat-topped, or “corymbose,” 
clusters, and each one of the bunch is an inch or an 
inch and a half across—the same size, that is, as those 
of the Apple, from which they are technically distin- 
guished, not by their colour, but by having their 
styles distinct to the base instead of being united 
below. This union, of course, takes place later, when 
the so-called “calyx-tube” binds together the five 
carpels into a single Pear. As the study of the not 
uncommon specimens of abnormal fruits shows, this 
structure, which is essentially nothing more than an 
expansion of the flower-stalk or “ floral receptacle,” 
contributes far more largely to the fruit than is the 
case in the Apple. It grows first as a thickened 
cylinder below the flower, and then expands in a 
globular form around the five carpels or “core” 
which it imbeds. This “core,” it should be observed, 
