96 
EOTAL nOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
occur for the most part singly ; and their character is much the 
same as that of the cultivated pear when allowed to assume its 
natural habit, reaching from 20 to 30 feet high, with a straight 
trunk for some 8 to 12 feet, then forming a spreading, somewhat 
elongated head of branches, of which the lower ones are more 
or less horizontal, the upper more or less ascending. The leaves 
have nothing peculiar to separate them from those of the cul- 
tivated kinds of pear, being more or less ovate, with the same 
kind of serratures, and being covered more or less with downy 
pubescence in the young state. The trees produce a strong 
reddish-coloured close-grained wood, easy to work, which is used 
for furniture, turning a good colour by age and the application 
occasionally of a little oil. The trees are usually abundant flow- 
erers and bearers of fruit, quite enlivening the landscape in the 
spring by their masses of white blossoms. 
I have had an opportunity of closely examining for several seasons 
successively many of these wild pear-trees at G-reening's Farm, in 
the clay district alluded to, and I have noted carefully the nature 
of the fruit produced. The result shows that not one of them 
can be called palatable when ripe. Some are excellent when pro- 
perly stewed, and most of them are used in the making of a 
beverage called cyder, which consists of the juice of apples with 
that of a small quantity of pears mixed. The pears are in many 
instances very juicy, with a sweet but overpowering astringent 
flavour, which few palates can endure. ^vTone of them are large 
in size, as will be seen from the outline figures accompanying tliese 
notes ; but the size is very variable. In shape they may be classed 
into two divisions, — the ovate, or more or less pear-shaped, the 
orbicular, or more or less rounded and approaching a sphere in 
shape. The figures are all drawn from the recent fruit, and give 
the exact size and form of two pears from each, of five trees widely 
separated from one another, and selected to give a fair idea of the 
character of the fruit produced. The short descriptions given 
with the figures were made from the fresh ripe fruit. IS'os. 1 
and 2 belong to the first, or ovate division, 3, 4, and 5 to the 
orbicular division. 
No. 1. — Ovate, gradually narrowed towards the stalk, which is 
long, thin, and nearly cylindrical. Eyes large and little pro- 
minent, with the persistent calyx-segments large and well deve- 
loped. Colour yellow-green, with a little flush of reddish rust- 
colour on the sunny side. Flesh white ; flavour exceedingly 
