14 
tree; the flowers are larger and pure white; the fruit is larger, 
with succulent flesh, and, unlike that of most Pear-trees, is broad at 
base and narrow at apex and pale yellow. The leaves of no other 
Pear-tree in the collection assume such brilliant autumn colors. The 
large specimen of this tree near the Forest Hills gate has been 
covered with flowers this spring. For the beauty alone of its autumn 
foliage this tree should find a place in collections of ornamental trees. 
Innoculation of seedling plants of another Chinese Pear-tree, P. Cal levy - 
ana, shows, as much as such tests prove anything, that they are immune 
to attacks of the Pear blight; and pomologists now believe that in this 
tree they have found the stock which will make the production of pears 
in this country a more certain and profitable industry than it has been 
before. Many thousand seedlings have been raised by the Department 
of Agriculture of the United States and by different experimental sta- 
tions from the seeds produced by the Arboretum trees; if these prove 
as valuable as American pomologists now believe them to be they will 
demonstrate the value of museums of science like the Arnold Arbore- 
tum and more than justify the labor and money it has expended in its 
explorations in eastern Asia. Unfortunately the only specimens of this 
Pear-tree outside of China which produce seeds are in this Arboretum, 
and although the trees produce good crops of fruit the supply of seeds 
from the Arboretum will remain far short of the demand. Another 
Pear-tree introduced from western China by Wilson, Pyrus serotina, 
is of interest to the students of cultivated fruits as the wild type from 
which have been derived the round, gritty Sand Pears which in many 
varieties have been cultivated for centuries by the Japanese who ob- 
tained them originally from China. Many forms of these Sand Pears, 
in the early days of Japanese intercourse with the outside world, were 
sent to the United States and Europe. The trees are handsome, with 
beautiful flowers and brown or greenish yellow fruits which in some 
forms are extremely ornamental, but western palates and digestions 
cannot cope with the hard fruit full of grit which is not even worth 
the trouble of cooking, although in Japan even little children appear 
to enjoy these pears emerging from the struggle without loss of teeth 
or internal revolution. The cultivated Japanese Sand Pears crossed 
with cultivated garden Pears produced several years ago in the United 
States the Keiffer and Lecomte Pears. These, although rather hard, 
were large and well suited to ship long distances. Much was expected 
of them, especially in the southern states where large orchards were 
planted. The trees, however, proved so susceptible to the blight that 
their cultivation has now been practically abandoned. As an ornament 
of gardens Pyrus serotina is worth growing for its large white flowers 
more or less deeply tinged with rose-color, and the deep bronze color 
of its unfolding leaves. As a fruit tree for western countries none of 
the Asiatic Pear-trees, except the north China Pyrus Bretschneideri, 
give any promise of value. In the Arboretum this tree, where it was 
raised many years ago from seeds sent from Peking, produces yellow, 
globose, juicy fruits from one to two inches in diameter and of excel- 
lent flavor. Nothing is known of this Pear as a wild tree, but it is 
evidently the origin of the large juicy pears which are conspicuous in 
the Peking market in September and are said to keep well into the 
winter. This Pear-tree has been in the Arboretum since 1882 and has 
never been attacked by blight, although trees of species like P. betu- 
