CHAP. XLU. 80SA CEJ3. PYRUS. 881 



sive cultivation on account of its fruit, independently altogether of its 

 handsome shape and large flowers. 



Beurre de Rans (not Beurree ranee, as commonly written, which means 

 rank, or rancid). Branches spreading, or pendulous. The best 

 very late pear yet known. It bears very well as a standard. 



Bezi de la Motte. Leaves remarkably narrow. 



Glout Morceau. Branches spreading. Head pyramidal. A hardy tree, 

 and a great bearer. The fruit of most excellent flavour, and hanging 

 late on the tree. The plate of this variety in Vol. II. is the portrait 

 of a tree in our garden at Bayswater, planted in 1825 ; the trunk of 

 which is covered with ivy ; and which, notwithstanding this, is loaded 

 with fruit almost every year, without any care or attention whatever 

 being bestowed upon it. 



Napoleon. Leaves broad and shining. Blossoms large. The tree 

 vigorous, and a good bearer. The fruit excellent. 



Swarfs Egg. A handsome pyramidal tree, and an excellent bearer. 

 The fruit roundish, or obovate. This is one of the commonest pear 

 trees in the market-gardens about London ; and we have introduced 

 the name here from having ourselves observed the handsome shapes 

 taken by the trees. The fruit, however, as compared with that of the 

 sorts recommended above by Mr. Thompson, is not worth culti- 

 vating ; though, in the months of November and December, it is more 

 abundant in the London markets than that of any other variety. 



The following Scotch pears are recommended by Mr. Gorrie, as 

 forms adapted for landscape scenery; but little can be said in favour 

 of their fruit, as compared with that of the new Flemish varieties. 

 The Benvie, the Golden Knap, and the Elcho take fastigiate forms ; the 

 latter more especially, Mr. Gorrie says, may be called the Lom- 

 bardy poplar of the pear tribe. These trees generally attain the 

 height of from 45 ft. to 50 ft. in as many years, in the Carse of 

 Gowrie, in Perthshire. 

 The busked Lady and the FowMeg take spreading orbiculate forms, such 

 as will assort with the ^4 v cer Pseudo-Platanus, and may be called the 

 oaks and elms of the pear family. (See Gard. Mag., vol. iv. p. 11.) 

 Description. The pear tree, in a wild state, has a pyramidal-shaped head, with 

 thorny branches, at first erect, and afterwards curved downwards and pen- 

 dulous. The roots are few, and descend perpendicularly, with few lateral 

 ramifications, except in shallow and rich soil. The leaves vary exceedingly 

 in different soils, and in different parts of Europe and Asia : in Britain, they 

 are generally green, and slightly tomentose, and do not differ greatly in mag- 

 nitude ; but in the woods of Poland, and in the vast steppes of Russia, the 

 leaves of the wild pear trees are commonly white with down, and vary so 

 exceedingly in their dimensions, as to include what are called the willow- 

 leaved, the sage-leaved, the elaeagnus-leaved, and other narrow-leaved varieties, 

 which by many are considered to be species. The fruit of the pear, in a wild 

 state, is seldom more than a fourth part of the size of even the most ordinary 

 cultivated varieties ; and it is also austere, and unfit to eat. The plant is 

 always found on a dry soil, and more frequently on plains than on hills or 

 mountains ; and solitary, or in small groups, rather than in woods and forests. 

 The rate of growth is 2 ft. or 3 ft. a year for the first 6 or 7 years ; in 10 years 

 it will attain the height of 20 ft. in gardens ; and in 30 years the height of 50 ft., 

 with a trunk from 1 ft. to 18 in. in diameter; which may be considered its 

 average dimensions in Britain. The tree is of great longevity. M. Bosc 

 says that he has seen trees that were considered to be more than 400 years 

 old ; and Mr. Knight believes that there are trees of the Teynton squash 

 (a famous perry pear) which existed as early as the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century. All writers on trees, from Theophrastus to the present day, agree 

 that, as the tree grows old, it increases in fruitfulness ; which is, indeed, the 

 case with most other trees. 



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