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t£t)e Crcagurg at 28otan», 



946 



Dutch, Peer ; French, Poire ; Danish, Pare ; 

 Swedish, Puron. The Pear is a native of 

 Europe, Circassia, Central Asia, and the 

 north of China; but it is not met with in 

 Southern India. As regards its hardiness, 

 it is not found, like the Apple, in a wild 

 state in Norway, nor has its cultivation 

 been extended so far north as that of the 

 Apple by 120 miles; it stops at Drontheim 

 (lat. 63° 25'), and even there it must have 

 the shelter of a wall. 



From the Wild Pear have arisen im- 

 proved varieties in different countries, 

 which instead of being hai - d and gritty, as 

 the earlier cultivated sorts generally were, 

 become at maturity as melting as a peach. 

 Many of the French Pears, raised upwards 

 of two centuries ago, are no longer reck- 

 oned worthy of cultivation. A collection 

 of them, consisting of fifty sorts, existed 

 at Chelsea 150 years ago, and are figured in 

 an early volume of the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society. Most of the kinds 

 imported from France have been super- 

 j seded by Belgian varieties, which have 

 proved in general of better quality, and 

 i more suitable for the climate of England. 

 Some of these improved varieties, only 

 known comparatively recently in this coun- 

 try, existed in the latter part of the last 

 century chiefly in the gardens attached to 

 numerous religious establishments in Bel- 

 gium ; and it was only after the close of 

 the war in 1815 that they were obtained 

 in England and other countries. The va- 

 rieties of Pears are now very numerous. 

 After excluding a vast number of worth- 

 less kinds, upwards of a thousand still 

 exist in some collections; and amongst 

 these the kinds possessing great excellence 

 are too numerous to be noticed here. We 

 may, however, mention the names of a 

 few of established merit, such as Passe 

 Colmar, Glou Morceau, WinterNelis, Beurre 

 Bosc, Thompson's, Louise Bonne, Fondante 

 d'Automne, Comte de Lamy, Easter Beurre, 

 Bergamotte d'Esperen, Josephine de Ma- 

 lines, and Beurre Ranee. Mr. Knight, when 

 President of the Horticultural Society, de- 

 voted great attention to crossing and 

 raising new pears from seed. A consider- 

 able number of those which he obtained 

 were very good, but perhaps the best is 

 Knight's Monarch. Besides its use for 

 dessert, the Pear is employed for stewing, 

 baking, compotes, and for. the making of 

 perry. 



The True Service-tree, P. Sorbus, has the 

 leaves imparipinnate and serrated; and 

 the flowers cream-cofoured, about the size 

 of those of the common hawthorn. The 

 fruits,— of which there are two principal 

 varieties, the apple-shaped P. S. malifor- 

 mis, and the pear-shaped P. S. pyriformis,— 

 are about as large as a moderate-sized 

 gooseberry, of a dull greenish-brown with 

 sometimes a reddish tinge, and marked 

 with ferruginous specks ; the flesh is acid 

 and austere in the unripe state, and only 

 fit to be eaten when it becomes soft and 

 mellow, in a state of incipient decay like 

 the medlar. The tree grows to the height 

 of from twenty to sixty feet. It is a native 



of France and Italy, and has been found in 

 some parts of Barbary— also in the moun- 

 tainous districts of Cornwall. It is said to be 

 of slow growth, and to be sixty years be- 

 fore it comes into bearing ; but this is not 

 the case, for in the Gardens of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, where both the apple and 

 pear-shaped varieties have borne fruit 

 abundantly, the growth was as l'apid as 

 that of most trees of the genus Pyrus. It 

 appears not so well adapted for the climate 

 of Britain as it is for that of France. It 

 lives to a great age : Loudon states that 

 some specimens of it are believed to be 

 upwards of 1,000 years old, and that it is 

 the hardest and heaviest of all indigenous 

 woods. It has a compact fine grain, and 

 takes a high polish ; it is much sought 

 after in France by millwrights for making 

 cogs to wheels, rollers, cylinders, blocks, 

 &c. ; it is preferred to all other kinds 

 of wood for making the screws to wine- 

 presses , and it is also in repute for mathe- 

 matical rulers. Its properties are such as 

 to justify the opinion that it would answer 

 exceedingly well for certain kinds of wood- 

 engravings where the fineness of boxwood 

 is not required. [R.T.J 



PYTHONIUM. This genus, as is also 

 the case with some of its allies, owes its 

 name to the snake-like appearance of its 

 spadix, &c. It is classed under the Aracew, 

 and consists of Nepalese herbs with a some- 

 what globular fleshy rootstock, whence 

 emerge the much-divided leaves and the 

 inflorescence— the latter consisting of a 

 spadix, elevated on a long stalk, and sur- 

 rounded by a spathe. The spadix is thickly 

 beset with male and female flowers ; its 

 tipper extremity has a number of wart-like 

 neutral flowers on it; the anthers open by 

 two pores ; and the ovaries are one-celled, 

 with a long style, terminated by a three to 

 four-lobed fleshy stigma. 



One species, best known under the old 

 name of Arumbulbiferuin,i& cultivated in 

 hothouses, and is remarkable for the pre- 

 sence of little bulb-like buds on the leaves 

 just at the junction of the stalk with the 

 blade of the leaf. These bulbs become de- 

 tached, and thus serve to perpetuate the I 

 species. This plant has also been described ! 

 under the name Tltomsonia. The odour of | 

 the spadix of some of these plants is most j 

 disgusting, and has been compared to that 

 of putrid salt-fish. [M. T. M.l 



PYXIDANTHERA barbulata is a small 

 prostrate creeping evergreen, native of 

 North America, and one of the two genera 

 forming the order Diapensiacece. It has 

 narrow oblanceolate awl-pointed crowd- 

 ed leaves, bearded near the base, the lower 

 ones opposite and the upper mostly alter- 

 nate ; and very numerous solitary sessile 

 white or rose-coloured flowers, which are 

 distinguished from those of Diapensia by 

 their transversely-opening anthers having 

 an awn on the lower valve. [A. SJ 



PYXINEL A natural order of lichens, 

 with an orbicular superficial disk, contained 

 in an excipulum which is at first closed, 



