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sorts there are many which are annually improving: and if we look back to the best French authors 
who have written on the subject of fruit-trees, we shall find, that the times of ripening of many sorts 
of Pears are put down a month or six weeks later about fifty or sixty years ago, than they are now 
found to ripen about Paris; and here about London it is much the same, for I cannot find they are 
the least forwarder in the times of their ripening at Paris than at London. 
Species 2. Woolly-leaved Pear Tree. (Pyrus Pollueria.) 
Leaves ovate, pubescent even on the upper surface, especially along the midrib. Peduncles to- 
mentose. Corymb elongated, tomentose. Flowers very numerous, much smaller than in the com¬ 
mon Pear.* 
Native of Germany. Introduced in 1786, by Mr. John Graefer.-f 
Species 3. Alpine Pear Tree. (Pyrus Nivalis.) 
Branchlets or twigs thickish. Leaves elliptic or oval, pedoled, silky and whitish underneath. 
Flowers in terminating corymbs. Fruit globular, extremely acerb, but when ripe melting and very 
sweet. Native of the mountains of Austria.} 
Species A. Common Apple Tree. (Pyrus Mal US.) 
The Apple is a spreading tree, with the branches and twigs irregular and twisting, more horizon¬ 
tal than in the Pear. Leaves ovate, serrate, the younger ones pubescent underneath. Stipules linear. 
Flowers in terminating, sessile, villose umbels. Corollas white, but finely tinged with red on the 
outside. Fruit roundish, umbilicate at the base, acid.§ 
The Apple in its wild state, then called the Crab or Wilding, is armed with thorns, as well as the 
wild Pear. The peduncles are rarely subdivided, and are mostly covered with soft down; as is the 
inside, and sometimes the outside of the calyx.|| According to Scopoli, the calyx is smooth on the 
outside, but lanuginose within, and wrinkled at the base. Probably these circumstances vary. 
Linneus distinguishes two varieties of the wild Apple: the common one, with a very acid fruit, and 
another with a bitter fruit, which becomes sweetish when ripe. This is more rare, and is found 
chiefly in Smoland. Perhaps it may be the same with the nivalis of Jacquin. 
Mr. Miller mentions two varieties in the fruit of the Crab, one white, the other purple towards 
the sun: it is commonly of yellowish green with a tinge of red. He also speaks of a variety with 
variegated leaves; but when the trees grow vigorous, the leaves soon become plain. 
Halier thus discriminates the Apple tree. It has many things in common with the Pear tree, but 
the leaf is more shortly mucronate, less manifestly serrate, subhirsute underneath. The flowers tinged 
with red, and smelling very sweet. The peduncle shorter. The stamens usually from nineteen to 
twenty-five. The fruit round, hollowed at the peduncle, depressed at top, less astringent, but more 
acid than the Pear, of a softer texture. The Apple has woody threads passing through it from the 
peduncle, ten of which are regularly disposed round the capsules, and tend to the calyx. It is said 
that the fruit rots when these are broken. The Pear also has them, but they are not so distinct, on 
* Linn. Mant. 
T Hort. Kew. 
} Jacquin. 
§ Smith. 
|| Engl. Bot. 
