THE WOODEN PEAR 



By Willard N. Clute. 



1^ ETURNED travellers used to be fond of asserting- that 

 -■^^ Australia is a land of opposites in more than a geo^ 

 graphical sense, adducing in support of this proposition the fact 

 that in that faraway land pears grow with the large end nearest 

 the stem. Better methods of communication long ago put an 

 end to such mild attempts at nature-faking and in the case of 

 the pear, at least, revealed the basis upon which its m3^th was 

 constructed. 



As a matter of fact, pear-shaped fruits are found in 

 Australia with the stem at the large end, but they are not the 

 kind of fruits \yq ordinarily visualize w^hen pears are mentioned. 

 Though in size and shape the foreign pears are very good like- 

 nesses of our well known fruit, the likeness goes no further, for 

 the Australian products are of solid wood and about as endur- 

 ing specimens of fruit as can be found anywdiere. The common 

 name of wooden pear exactly describes them. 



The w^ooden pear is the fruit of a tree, Xyloincluiii pyri- 

 formc, belonging to the Proteaceae, a large tropical and sub- 

 tropical family of trees and shrubs most abundant in Australia 

 and South Africa, but represented by a few species in the 

 American tropics. The fruit is a follicle, similar to that which 

 ripens into a milkweed pod, and like other follicles, splits down 

 the ventral suture at maturity, allowing the seeds to escape. In 

 our plant there are two roundish seeds pressed face to face. 



