THE CRAB, ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND ASSOCIATIONS. 
Ill 
bear a good crop the next season—he goes on to say, “In certain parts of this country superstitious 
observances yet linger, such as drinking health to the trees on Christmas and Epiphany eves, 
saluting them by throwing roasted crabs or toast from the Wassail bowl to their roots, dancing and 
singing round them, lighting fires, &c. All these ceremonies are supposed to render the trees pro¬ 
ductive for the coming season.” (Forest Trees of Britain, Vol. I.,p. 303). 
It is generally admitted that all the excellent cultivated varieties of the Apple are derived 
from the Crab, a belief that is strongly confirmed by the great tendency shewn by the seed¬ 
lings from Apples to degenerate back to their origin. It is curious, however, to notice that with 
the Pear, this connection with its wild representative is by no means so clear. Decaisne believes 
that they too are all produced by cultivation from the small wild forms of Pyrus communis, of 
which one variety, the Pyrus cordata of Desvaux has been found growing near Plymouth. An 
excellent paper on these “Small Fruited Pears,” English and Foreign, has been published by 
Dr. Maxwell T. Masters in the Journal of Botany (1876). It affords no proof however of the 
derivation of the cultivated varieties of Pears from them ; and the half-wild Pears, figured by 
Mr. Wilson Saunders in the Journal of the Horticultural Society (1872J, do not show any resemblance 
to them. The wild Pear-tree in England is much more sparingly distributed in woods and coppices 
than is the Crab tree, and it is very rare to find it in bearing. Flerefordshire and the adjoining 
Counties have been closely examined by Botanists and only one instance has been recorded of its 
occurrence. Mr. J. Tom Burgess has also stated that the only wild Pear tree to be found in 
Warwickshire grows on the Fosse-way (a Roman road) at Chesterton Camp. When fruit is found 
on these trees, like that represented by Mr. Wilson Saunders, it rather resembles a renegade from 
cultivation, than an improved form of the Small Fruited Pear. 
Crab-trees apparently of great age, may often be seen on old forest ground, but in hedges they 
are now seldom observable. 
EDWIN LEES, F.L.S., F.G.S., 
Vice-president of the Malvern and Worcestershire Naturalists’ Clubs. 
