THE FLORIST AND POMOLOCHST. 
[ Maeoh, 
Linnaeus, from tlie Caucasus. Linnaeus united 
all the Pears, both wild and cultivated, under 
the name of P. communis , and this name we 
employ now for the cultivated varieties col¬ 
lectively. At Torek, in the northern Caucasus, 
Pear trees eighty and even a hundred feet 
high are not rare, with trunks three to four 
feet in diameter. Siebold introduced into the 
botanic garden at Leyden eight varieties of 
Japanese cultivated Pears, differing widely in 
size, shape, flavour, and time of ripening. 
As a species, P. sinensis is distinguished by 
its rather large ovate, or nearly round leaves, 
which are abruptly narrowed into a short point 
and furnished with bristle-pointed teeth ; in 
the spring, when they unfold, they are of a 
brownish red. In Germany it is planted for 
ornamental purposes, but it has not yet borne 
either flowers or fruit. P. cordcita is said to 
occur in Persia, but Professor Koch thinks the 
Persian tree is probably P. Achras. The latter 
must have originally existed in the steppes of 
Southern Russia, especially in the country of 
the Don Cossacks, for so far back as history 
goes the pear-tree has played an important 
part in the customs of the people with them, 
it is the sign of grief. It is likewise held] in 
high esteem in their festivals, especially at 
Whitsuntide ; and it is under a pear-tree that 
the annual custom takes place of making the 
most beautiful maiden the queen for the 
ensuing year. P. Balcinsce of Decaisne is 
probably distinct from P. Achras , to which 
Boissier refers it. 
P. Sinai is certainly one of the most interest¬ 
ing of Pear trees ; it entered largely into the 
parentage of the early Italian varieties, but it 
does not appear to have been introduced into 
France till towards the end of the last century. 
The area of its distribution in a wild state is 
not known with certainty ; it certainly is indi¬ 
genous in Syria, and perhaps also in northern 
Babylon or Assyria, which was formerly a 
Persian province, but it is doubtful whether it 
extends to Persia proper. This species was 
probably carried by the Phoenicians from Syria 
to lower Italy and Sicily, as well as Rosa 
damascena , before Homer’s time. P. syriacci 
and P. glabra , of Boissier, together with the P. 
Boveana , of Decaisne, are varieties of P. Sinai , 
but Decaisne’s P. Bourgeana seems rather to 
belong to P. Achras. 
P. elccagrifolia (not “ elseagnifolia,” as some¬ 
times written) has played an important part in 
originating garden varieties. P. Kotschyana of 
Boissier is an Oriental variety, with very woolly 
leaves, and a large, round fruit. It is uncertain 
whether P. salicifolia , which is a very orna¬ 
mental species, has contributed to the produc¬ 
tion of cultivated varieties; but it is the Achras 
of Theophrastus and other early writers, and is 
still very widely dispersed in Greece. 
THE METEOR. MARIGOLD. 
f HE Pot Marigold, Calendula officinalis , 
is one of the oldest of our garden annuals, 
having been introduced from the south 
of Europe in or about 1578. It is also one 
of the most brilliant, its rich orange-coloured 
flowers and its profuse and continuous-flower¬ 
ing habit rendering it attractive for a long 
period. The so-called double form of this 
plant—that is to say, the form in which the 
whole of the florets become ligulate and the 
“flower” thus becomes a perfect rosette—is far 
superior in beauty to the original or typical 
form, and is probably unequalled for symmetry 
of outline and arrangement, and it is, accord¬ 
ingly, esteemed by those who possess it. The 
normal colour is, as we have said, a rich deep 
orange, but occasionally a yellow-flowered plant 
appears. 
Now it is apparently from the blending of 
these two forms—the orange and the yellow— 
that the beautiful new variety illustrated by the 
annexed engraving has originated. In it, as 
will be seen by the figure, each of the ligulate 
florets—which are laid out with the strictest 
regularity from edge to eye—has a yellow 
