DECIDUOUS TREES. 
35 
make the tree highly ornamental when planted by itself, and 
still more so when it is the foreground of a cluster of spruces or 
pines. It does not grow of sufficient size for a street or park 
shade tree, but for small grounds and for narrow roads and 
paths in cemeteries it is admirably adapted. It may be, and 
usually is, grown with a single stem, with its branches thrown 
out at three or four feet from the ground ; but on lawns or grass 
plots, and as connected with evergreens, it is much handsomer 
if permitted to throw out a number of stems directly from the 
crown, as represented in our engraving. 
The American variety {pyrus Americana) does not make quite 
as large a tree as the European, but is more abundant in the 
numbers of its flowers and fruits ; the latter, however, are not 
quite as brilliant in color. 
The sorb or service tree ( pyrus sorbus ) and the white beam 
tree ( pyrus aria) are two additional varieties of occasional use ; 
the former because of the tree attaining a larger size, and there- 
fore better suited to some positions, and also to the fact that its 
fruit, when frosted and in a state of partial decay, is by some 
regarded as pleasantly palatable. 
The white beam grows very compact, and its leaves being deep 
green on the upper side and nearly white underneath, when 
ruffled by the wind present at times a pleasing contrast with 
the clear green of evergreens and other trees with which it may 
be grouped. 
A variety of mountain ash (quercifolia) introduced within a 
few years past, with foliage resembling the oak, claims, however, 
a first place when only or\p tree is to be planted. Its growth is 
as rapid as any variety, form very regular and symmetrical, with 
foliage lobed like the oak, and bearing flowers and fruit quite 
as freely as any of the varieties. 
There are also a number of other sorts, as the elder-leaved, 
pear-leaved, golden-striped, etc., that are each curious and beau- 
