DECIDUOUS TREES. 
429 
The Siberian Crab, P. m. pnmifolia^ has smoother, lighter- 
colored twigs and bark than our wilding, a more graceful growth, 
and less abundant and less fragrant bloom ; but its clusters of 
small yellow fruit add greatly to the beauty of the tree in Septem- 
ber. There is a variety with pink-colored fruit. 
The Chinese Double-flowering Crab, P. spectahilis^ is the 
finest of all the crab-trees for ornamental planting. Its blossoms 
are semhdouble, very large, nearly two inches in diameter, of a 
rose-color when expanded, but a beautiful deep red in the bud. 
The fruit is yellow, when ripe, and the size of a cherry. The tree 
attains a larger size than most of the crab-apple trees. It is an 
upright grower, when young, but with age its branches spread and 
bend until it becomes a graceful drooping-boughed tree. Height 
and breadth of top from twenty to thirty feet. 
THE PEAR TREE. Pyrus. 
”Ye have no history. I ask in vain 
Who planted on the slope this lofty group 
Of ancient pear trees, that with springtime burst 
Into such breadth of bloom. One bears a scar 
Where the quick lightning scored its trunk, yet still 
It feels the breath of spring, and every May 
Is white with blossoms. Who it was that laid 
Their infant roots in earth, and tenderly 
Cherished the delicate sprays, I ask in vain, 
Yet bless the unknown hand to which I owe 
This annual festival of bees, these songs 
Of birds within their leafy screens, these shouts 
Of joy from children gathering up the fruit 
Shaken in August from the walling boughs.” 
Bryant. 
The pear is so elegant a tree, that, even if it bore no fruit, it 
would rank high for decorative planting. The lovely green of its 
bursting leaves, which are among the earliest to expand, must be 
familiar to all who have ever observed trees ; while its floods of 
clustered white blossoms make it like a snowy pyramid. Later in 
the season its glossy foliage is surpassed by very few forest trees ; 
