430 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
while its fruit is one of the most luscious of our zone. Most 
varieties of pears assume a distinctly pyramidal form, with an 
irregular and rather hedge-like ramification of branches and spurs 
as the trees grow old. Without its leaves it is a rough and rather 
unpleasing tree. In size it is of the second or third class, fre- 
quently attaining a height of forty to fifty feet, and a diameter of 
head of thirty feet. Its flowers are pure white, in clusters, fragrant, 
and cover the tree profusely in April or May. Unlike the peach 
tree, the pear tree if not grown too luxuriantly when quite young is 
a hardy and long-lived tree. If planters would wait till their trees 
are in full bearing before manuring or otherwise forcing a strong 
growth of wood, few pear trees would die young. Old trees gene- 
rally get too few, and young trees too many of such favors. It 
grows well in any soil which is warm and well drained, but needs 
to be grown in cultivated ground, otherwise the tree soon assumes 
a stunted and mossy appearance and the fruit will be quite inferior. 
For garden culture pears have been much grown on quince 
roots, which make dwarf trees. Some varieties bear more and 
better fruit when thus dwarfed. These dwarf pear trees are ex- 
ceedingly interesting in every stage of their growth, and both for 
their beauty and their quick fruiting, merit some of the popularity 
they have attained. Still, we would recommend planters not to 
rely on their dwarf, but rather on their standard trees for a per- 
manent supply of pears. The former should be regarded more as 
temporary investments, or perhaps as garden pets, the beauty of 
whose growth and early productiveness will serve to make us forget 
to be impatient of the later productiveness of the standards. But 
the latter are by far the most profitable in the end, and many of 
the very best varieties bear almost as quickly on their own roots as 
upon quince roots. 
The Louise Bonne de Jersey, Duchesse d’Angouleme, White Do- 
yenne or Virgalieu, Vicar of Wakefield, and Pound pear (for baking), 
are varieties desirable to grow on quince. The following is a good 
list of ten summer and autumn sorts on their own stocks for perma- 
nent trees, with the proportional number of each, recommended for 
a collection of twenty trees, viz. r one Madelaine, one Bloodgood, 
one Rostiezer, one Dearborn’s seedling, four Bartletts, one Flemish 
