The Pears of New York. U. P. Hedrick
Spain. The leaves are ovate, 1 in. in length, rounded at the base, on very long, slender petioles. The pear is very small with a persistent calyx.
2. PYRUS NIVALIS Jacquin
1. Fl. Austr. 2: 4, t. 107. 1774.
Tree small, stout, without thorns; young shoots thickly covered with white wool. Leaves oval or obovate, 2 to 3 in. long,¾ to 1¼ in. wide, crenate at the base, entire, upper and lower surfaces covered with white wool when young, nearly glaucous and the upper surface shining when mature. Flowers white, 1½ in. across, clustered. Fruit roundish, yellowish-green, borne on a stalk as long or longer than the fruit, acid or becoming sweetish at full maturity.
This pear is a native of eastern Europe and Asia Minor and is often found in France as an escape from the orchard. The tree, which sometimes attains a height of fifty feet, is said to be a handsome ornamental. The species is sometimes under cultivation in France for the fruits which make very good perry, and when bletted, as is the medlar, are suitable for dessert. In Austria and adjoining parts of Germany, the species is somewhat cultivated for the same purposes as in France under the name Schnee birn or Snow pear, because not fit to eat until snow falls. This pear might have value to hybridize with common pears for the improvement of their fruit.
Botanists are not quite certain of the botanical standing of P. nivalis. By some botanists it is considered a cultivated form of P. elæagrifolia Pallas. By others it is thought to be a cross of which P. communis is one parent. P. salvifolia De Candolle is either closely allied to or identical with this species. P. kotschyana Boissier differs from P. nivalis chiefly in having smaller and harder fruits. P. elæagrifolia Pallas is distinguished by some botanists from P. kotschyana only by its spiny branches—not a constant character.
3. PYRUS AURICULARIS Knoop
1. Pomol. 2:38. 1763. 2. P. irregularis Muenchhausen Hausvater 5:246. 1770. 3. P. pollveria Linnaeus Mant. 2:244. 1771. 4. P. bollwyleriana De Candolle Fl. France Suppl. 5:530. 1815.
A tree 30 to 50 ft. high, forming a round head; branchlets and buds downy. Leaves ovate or oval, 3 to 4 in. long, 2 to 2½ in. wide; pointed, irregular, and coarsely and sometimes doubly toothed; upper surface glossy, dark green, with glands on the midrib, glabrous at maturity, downy when young; lower surface permanently covered with gray tomentum; stalk 1 to 1½ in. long, woolly. Flowers white, nearly 1 in. across, 5 to 20 in tomentose corymbs; sepals covered with pure white wool on both surfaces; styles 2 to 5, united and tomentose at the base; stamens rosy red. Fruit pyriform, 1 to 1½ in. in diameter; stalk 1 to 1½ in. long, reddish yellow; flesh yellow, sweet.
This tree is an interesting hybrid between P. communis and the whitebeam, P. aria. It was first noticed at Bollweiler, Alsace, and was first mentioned by J. Bauhin in 1619. It is propagated by grafts as few of the seeds are fertile and these do not come true to name. It bears fruit very sparingly, none being produced in some seasons.
Besides the species that have been named there are several other occidental pears named by European botanists which may be looked for in botanic gardens. Some of these might have value for work in hybridization but it is doubtful. Of these, P. heterophylla Regel and Schmalhausen (Act. Hort. Petropol 5:pt. ii, 581. 1878) is a small thorny tree from the mountain valleys of Turkestan. P. amygdaliformis Villars (Cat. Meth. Jardin Strasbourg 323. 1807) is a spiny shrub or small tree, bearing small worthless fruits; a native of arid soils in the regions of olives in southern Europe. P. salicifolia Pallas (Itin. 3:734. 1776) is a small spiny tree from the Crimea, Caucasas, and Armenia; the fruit has little or no value. P. syriaca Boissier (Diag. Nov. Pl. Orient 10:1. 1849) is a thorny, shrubby tree from Syria, Asia Minor, and Kurdistan.
A review of botanical literature shows several other names of doubtful species of Pyrus which seem more likely to be hybrids or abnormal escapes from orchards. There are, also, many names which seem to be synonyms. Material and literature at hand do not enable the author to make certain of these, even if any sufficiently worthy purpose could be served in a pomological text.
ORIENTAL PEARS
The oriental pears have been brought to America in comparatively recent years, chiefly as ornamentals and for blight-resistant stocks; but hybrids of at least one species of this group, P. serotina, with the common pear have given many valuable orchard varieties. The Chinese and Japanese cultivate several species for their fruits. These pears constitute a group quite distinct in aspect of tree and fruit, but no characters not in occidental species are found in all species of the oriental group. The most constant differences, besides region of origin, are found in the leaves and the calyx. The leaves in most species are markedly acuminate and their margins are sharp-serrate or setose-serrate. The calyx falls from the fruit in the species now cultivated for food, but does not in two species promising for stocks.
4. PYRUS SEROTINA Rehder
1. Rehder Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 50:213. 1915.
Tree vigorous, upright, attaining a height of 20 to 50 ft., the branches becoming glabrous. Leaves ovate-oblong, sometimes ovate, 3 to 5 in. long, rounded at the base and rarely subcordate or cuneate, long-acuminate, sharply setose-serrate, with partially appressed seratures; when young, villous, or lower surface cobwebby, but becoming glabrous. Flowers white, borne in 6 to 9 flowered umbellate-racemose clusters; glabrous or somewhat tomentose and borne on slender pedicels; calyx-lobes triangular-ovate and long-acuminate,¼ to ½ in. long, glandulose-denticulate; petals oval, short-clawed,¾ in. long; stamens about 20; styles 4 or 5, glabrous. Fruit subglobose, russet-brown; stalk slender; calyx deciduous.
This oriental pear has been referred to P. sinensis Lindley (not Poiret) by botanists and horticulturists since its introduction in Europe nearly one hundred years ago until 1915 when Rehder, discovering that the true P. sinensis had been lost to cultivation, proposed the name P. lindleyi for one group and P. serotina for another group of Chinese pears passing under Lindley’s original species, P. sinensis.
This species comes from central and western China, where the fruits are used for food under the name, with that of other brown-fruited species, of tang-li. American pomologists are interested in the type species as a possible source of blight-resistant stocks for varieties of the common pear. Stocks of this species, however, grown on the Pacific slope have not proved satisfactory because difficult to bud, and very susceptible to leaf-blight, and because they are not as resistant to pear-blight as an ideal stock should be. Rehder, an authority on oriental pears, gives two botanical varieties. His var. stapfiana differs from the type in bearing pyriform fruits; leaves with less appressed serratures; and petals with attenuate claws. So far as now appears it is of no greater value to pomology than the type. The other botanical variety which Rehder describes, var. culta, is of great importance in pomology and must have detailed consideration.
PYRUS SEROTINA CULTA Rehder
1. Rehder Prod. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 50:233. 1915. 2. P. sinensis Hort. Not Lindley nor Poiret. 3. P. japonica Hort. Not Thunberg. 3. P. sieboldi Carrière Rev. Hort.. 110. 1880. 5. P. sinensis culta Makino Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:69. 1908.
Tree large, vigorous; top spreading, drooping, open; trunk thick, shaggy; branches stout, zigzag, greenish-brown, with a slight covering of scarf-skin marked with many conspicuous, elongated lenticels; branchlets slender, with long internodes, brownish-red, tinged with green and with thin, ash-gray