COMPLIMENTARY 
NEW SERIES VOL. IX NO. 3 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 10. 1923 
Pear-trees. The Arboretum contains one of the largest collections in 
the world of the wild types of Pear-trees, especially those from north¬ 
ern and western China. As ornamental trees none of the species from 
southeastern Europe compare in size or in beauty of foliage and flowers 
with several of the Chinese species, among which are some of the hand¬ 
somest of the hardy trees of recent introduction. The earliest of the 
Pear-trees in the collection, 
Pyrus ussuriensis, opened its first flowers this year on April 30th. 
This tree, which is common in northern China, Korea and Manchuria 
and the only species which has a foot-hold in Japan where it has 
recently been discovered, inhabits more northern and colder regions than 
any other Pear-tree. If any Pear-tree proves hardy therefore in the 
northern interior part of this continent it should be this species; and 
if it proves resistant to blight it should yield the hardiest of all Pear- 
stocks. No other species attains such a large size as is shown by the 
photograph made in 1919 by Wilson in Korea of a tree which was sixty 
feet high, with a tall trunk fourteen feet round and a head of spread¬ 
ing branches seventy-five feet across. The flowers are not as large as 
those of some of the other species, but as a flowering tree P. ussuri¬ 
ensis is one of the most beautiful of all Pear-trees for the flower-buds 
and the opening flowers are deeply tinged with rose-color. The fruit 
is subglobose, green, hard, and from one-half to three-quarters of an 
inch in diameter and, like that of most wild Pear-trees, is of no com¬ 
estible value. Among other Pear-trees this northern species, as a 
young tree at least can be easily recognized by its smooth pale bark. 
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