922 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART 111. 



habitat given, except that of a solitary tree in Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, 

 in Worcestershire. (See p. 23.) This tree (which stands on the property 

 of William Lacon Childe, 

 Esq., of Kinlet, and of 

 which a drawing has been 

 kindly sent to us by the Earl 

 of Mount Norris), is of 

 very great age, and is now 

 in a state of decay. The 

 whitty pear tree, as it is 

 there called, is 45 ft. high ; 

 the diameter of its trunk, 

 at 1 ft. from the ground, 

 is 1 ft. 9 in., and that of 

 the head 26 ft. Our en- 

 graving of the tree {fig. 

 644.) is to a scale of 1 in. 

 to 12 ft., and the botani- 

 eal specimen is to a scale 

 of 1 in. to 2 ft. Miller, 

 in 1731, says, " The ma- 

 nured service was formerly 

 said to be growing wild 

 in England; but this, I 

 believe, was a mistake, for 

 several curious persons 

 have strictly searched those 

 places where it was men- 

 tioned to grow, and could 

 not find it; nor could 

 they learn from the inha- 

 bitants of those countries 

 that any such tree had ever 

 grown there." Miller adds 

 that, though abundant in 

 Italy, where a great variety 

 of sorts are cultivated, 

 yet it is very scarce in 



England, " for," he continues, " I have not seen more than one large tree, 

 which was lately growing in the gardens formerly belonging to John Trades- 

 cant ; which tree was near 40 ft. high, and did produce a great quantity of 

 fruit annually." He afterwards mentions some smaller trees, growing in the 

 garden of Henry Marsh, Esq., at Hammersmith, which produced fruit, from 

 which several young trees have been raised in the London nurseries. In 

 1752, Miller observes, " There is a great number of large trees of the true 

 service growing wild about Aubignl, in France; whence the late Duke of 

 Richmond [who was also Due d'Aubigne, and a great lover of plants] brought 

 a great quantity of the fruit, and from the seeds raised a number of young 

 plants at Goodwood, in Sussex." We have repeatedly examined the planta- 

 tions at Goodwood, in search of Pyrus Morbus, but have never been able to 

 find a single plant of that species. The tree is tender, when young, even in 

 France; and it is exceedingly difficult to raise in the gardens there. There 

 are but a few specimens of it in England, which are chiefly in the neighbour- 

 hood of London ; and, for the last 30 years, scarcely any plants of it could 

 be obtained in any of the London nurseries, except at Messrs. Loddiges's, and 

 even there only since the yea 1815. The tree appears to have been known 

 to the Greeks and Romans. Pliny mentions four sorts: the pear-shaped, the 

 i if, pie-shaped, the egg-shaped, and a kind that was only used medicinally. 



