298 



THE PEAR. 



twenty gallons of perry each. So large a quan- 

 tity as a hogshead from one tree is very unusual. 

 The sorts principally used for making perry are 

 such as have an austere juice. 



The Pear is hable to be infested by several de- 

 structive insects, which prey either on the flower, 



fruit, leaf, or vrood. 

 The most remarkable of 

 these is the Paradoxical 

 Pear -fly {Psiliis boscii). 

 This is a small black 

 fly, scarcely a line long, 

 furnished with a singu- 

 — ^ lar excrescence or horn 



PARADOXICAL PEAR-FLY. ^^^^^J'S ^Ol^^^ back, 



which the insect keeps 

 depressed close to the body, except when laying- 

 its eggs. These it deposits, in spring, in the 

 opening blossoms of the Pear, to the number of 

 six or seven. In a few days the larvje escape 

 from the egg and take refuge in the core of the 

 young fruit, which, as if stimulated to unnatural 

 exertion, increases rapidly in size, and soon out- 

 strips the other pears, losing its bright green 

 colour as it grows. It subsequently falls to the 

 ground, when the larva escapes, buries itself in 

 the ground, and remains there until it assumes 

 the perfect state. The numbers of these insects 

 may be sensibly diminished by collecting all the 

 diseased fruits before they fall from the tree, and 

 destroying them. Some entomologists are of 

 opinion that this fly does not lay its eggs in the 

 blossom of the Pear, but selects the fruit which 

 is infested by the larvae of another insect, the 

 Black Gallmidge (Cecidomyia nigra)^ and deposits 



