4388 WCODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
of a very fine and close grain, and next to box for the use of the 
engraver on wood. It takes a fine and permanent black stain, 
and can then with difficulty be distinguished from ebony, so 
that it is sometimes substituted for it. It is tough, not liable to 
warp, and fitted for the use of the turner and for the manufac- 
ture of tools. As fuel, it burns readily and vividly, and yields a 
great heat. The leaves and the bark aiford a yellow dye. 
The number of names of pears contained in the London Hor- 
ticuitural Society's Catalogue for 1831, was 677.—( Loudon, p. 
883). All these, it must be remarked, are varieties of a single 
species, the common pear, and yet all are distinguishable by the 
qualities of the fruit, and oftentimes by peculiarities in their 
leaves, modes of growth, color and appearance. 
The Appie, P. mdlus, is still more valuable, in every respect, 
than the pear, but does not form so handsome a tree. It has 
been longer and more carefully cultivated than any other tree, 
and the effects of cultivation are visible in the immense number 
of varieties, and in the prodigious difference between the deli- 
cious qualities of some of the choicer sorts, and the harsh, sour, 
and: austere crab-apple, produced by the same tree growing 
wild. It is native to all the temperate parts of Europe and 
Asia, and is every where cultivated for its fruit. 
The apple flourishes in every part of New England, though, 
like the pear and the peach, it is hable to great fluctuations from 
year to year. Many people think that all these species, espe- 
cially in their tender varieties, are less successfully cultivated 
than formerly. The change is probably not greater than is to 
be ascribed to the loss or diminution of the forests. The last 
two or three years seem to be bringing back the olden time, and 
make it probable that the apparent decline of some previous 
years is only part of a cycle, which, when completed, will bring 
round again the seasons most favorable to these valuable fruits. 
The climate seems to be subject to some such periodical change. 
Old and valuable varieties of this fruit and of the pear are con- 
tinually dying out, and alarm is sometimes felt lest none so 
good shall be found to take their place. But the arts of the 
fruit-cultivator were never in so high a state as at this moment; 
