should not be gathered till they are dead ripe. As many haws contain more than one seed, they ought not to be put in the ground entire, but, if they are to be sown immediately, they must be macerated in water till the pulp is separated from the

and the latter should then be mixed with dry sand, to keep them separate, and to enable the sower to scatter them equally over the surface; they should be sown in November or December, as soon as separated from the pulp. They may be sown thinly in beds, the seeds being scattered so as to lie about one inch apart every way, and covered about a quarter of an inch. At the end of the first year's growth, the strongest of the plants may be thinned out from the beds, and planted in nursery lines; and in the autumn of the second year, the remaining plants may be taken up for the same purpose. Hawthorns ought always to be two years transplanted before they are employed for hedges; younger and untransplanted plants, though cheaper to purchase, are always the most expensive to the planter, as they require temporary protection for a longer period."-Loudon, II, 840.

When the pear is grafted into the thorn, it should be done close to the surface of the ground, or even beneath it, as otherwise there is danger of the trunk out-growing the root, and being blown over by the wind.

Sixteen species, according to Torrey and Gray, are found in North America. The following are found in Massachusetts:

Sp. 1. THE COCKSPUR THORN. C. crusgálli. L.

This is a singularly neat shrub, often forming a beautiful, round-headed, small tree, ten or fifteen feet in height. The trunk is erect, with a rough, scaly bark, and set with sharp thorns. The branches are gray, numerous, large, nearly horizontal, and very thorny. Recent shoots of a reddish gray. The leaves are entire, inversely egg-shaped, tapering regularly from near the end to the base of the footstalk. They are rounded or pointed at the extremity, serrate, except towards the base, dark green, smooth and very shining above, paler, but smooth and conspicuously reticulated beneath.

The flowers are in irregular corymbs, with a leafy footstalk,

a leaf being below each of one or two of the lower partial footstalks. The calyx-segments are long and acute. Stamens usually 10, and styles 1 or 2. The fruit is on slender, somewhat branched stalks, dependent from the end of spurs which are shorter than the thorns, oblong-globose, dotted with brown, crowned with the 5 very acute segments of the calyx.

The thorns are two or three inches long, or more, very sharp and slender, and, when young, set with a few minute leaves. Several varieties of this thorn are found or produced by cultivation.

Found from Canada to Florida, and westward to Missouri.

Sp. 2. THE WHITE THORN. SCARLET-FRUITED THORN.
C. coccinea. L.

A low, round-headed, much branched tree, growing naturally on rather dry, rocky hills, but found by the banks of streams, and in all kinds of soil. When surrounded by other trees, it sometimes attains the height of twenty-five feet.

The trunk on old trees has a light gray, scaly bark, often rugged and knurly, and not unfrequently armed with stout thorns, especially between the lower branches. The recent branchlets are of a dark olive green, which gradually turns to a light gray. The thorns are long, pointed, and somewhat falcate, or short and stout, sometimes solitary, more frequently by the side of a short branch.

The leaves are of a soft, leathery texture, round-ovate, or rhomboid, or broad-elliptical, in their outline, often entire and usually wedge-shaped at base, or slightly decurrent into a slender footstalk; on the sterile branches often heart-shaped at base; serrate towards the end, and nearly entire or more or less deeply divided, on each side, into 2 to 4 acuminate lobes; smooth on both surfaces, dark green above, lighter beneath. Flowers in May or June. The segments of the calyx are glandular-dentate; the stamens often only 10; styles 3 to 5. The fruit is globose, or pear-shaped, half an inch long, one third of an inch broad, of a bright scarlet.

Found from Canada to Texas, and westward to Kentucky.

Sp. 3. THE PEAR-LEAVED THORN. C. tomentosa. L.

A much branched shrub usually eight or ten feet high, but, when surrounded by other plants, eighteen or twenty, with bark, on the branches and small trunks, of a bright reddish, polished green, or a shining brown, on the recent shoots dotted with elliptic, raised, brown dots. The thorns are axillary, from one to three inches long, and pointed. The flowers are large and fragrant, on broad, leafy corymbs. The segments of the calyx are long and slender and glandular-serrate, and, with the flower-stem, downy. The styles are usually 3. The fruit is large, orange red, pear-shaped.

The leaves are of a firm, leathery texture, rather deeply furrowed on the upper surface, large, sometimes five inches in length and three in breadth; ovoid, tapering rapidly at base into a footstalk which is margined to the bottom; doubly serrate, sharply cut towards the extremity, which commonly ends in an acute point; downy on both surfaces when young, smooth finally on the upper surface, but with the veins beneath permanently covered with a short down.

This is one of our most common and hardy thorns. It is well fitted to form a part of a hedge, but is objectionable on account of the early fall of the leaf. It should, therefore, be mingled with sweet-briar and the buck-thorn.

It flowers in May and June, and ripens its large fruit in October. Found from Canada to Kentucky.

Sp. 4. THE DOTTED-FRUITED THORN. C. punctata. Jacquin.

A handsome shrub, eight to twelve feet high, rarely more, but sometimes twenty or even twenty-five. The trunk, sometimes straight, is usually contorted and zig-zag, covered with a rough, much fissured bark.

The recent shoots have the dark brown, polished bark, characteristic of the thorn; the older branches are of a greenish gray, smooth or channelled with many small grooves. Thorns commonly long and stout, scythe-shaped. Leaves inversely egg-shaped, rounded towards the extremity, and wedge-shaped at base, tapering downwards and running along in a wing upon

the footstalk, almost to its very base. They are doubly serrate above, sometimes deeply cut towards the end, of a rather firm and tough texture, with furrows above the nerves on the upper surface, lighter colored and sometimes hairy beneath, especially on the veins. The fruit dark scarlet, rounded or egg-shaped, dotted with grayish dots, on footstalks which are dotted and hairy, branching, forming corymbs or heads with leaves beneath several of the lowermost footstalks. The fruit is somewhat hard and tough, but eatable and rather agreeable to the

taste.

This, like several other thorns, produces a great abundance of fruit. It is ripe in September, and a small tree loaded with it continues a very beautiful object, conspicuous at some distance, for several weeks. Each haw usually contains two pretty large hemispherical stones or nuts, so that a single tree often yields seed enough to produce plants sufficient for fifteen or twenty rods of hedge.

It is found, though less frequently than the white thorn, in most parts of the State, and in all situations, except, I think, very wet ground.

These four species, with many varieties, especially on the White and the Dotted-fruited, are all I have found in the State, though probably others are to be found. They would seem to promise better than any foreign species, for all the purposes to which the thorn may be applied.

One of the foreign species, the English Hawthorn, C. oxyacántha, distinguished for its deeply 3- or 5-lobed leaves and often purplish blossoms, has been somewhat extensively introduced, and flourishes perfectly well.

XXVII. 2. THE PEAR. PYRUS.

PYRUS. Lindley.

A genus containing trees or shrubs with simple or compound, serrate leaves; spreading, terminal, simple or compound cymes of white or rose-colored flowers, with awl-shaped, deciduous bracts; and fruit for the most part eatable. The calyx-tube is pitcher-shaped; the petals are roundish; styles 5, rarely 2 or 3, distinct or somewhat united at base; pome fleshy or berry-like, 5- (rarely 2- or 3-) celled, with 2 seeds in each cell.

The Apple, the Pear, the Service, the Beam-tree and the Mountain Ash, besides several less important plants, belong to this genus.

The PEAR TREE, P. communis, is too well known to need a description, and several writers have given directions for its cultivation in this climate. It grows rapidly and forms a tall and finely shaped head; the fruit is agreeable and wholesome as food, and the juice forms a pleasant liquor; and it is to be regretted that this tree is not more frequently planted. Rows of the pear tree might often border road-sides and divisions of lands, with little injury to the grass or other vegetation, and to the great relief of travellers, and the protection of orchards and gardens.

There are few in any community, certainly in ours, so lost to a sense of right, and so insensible of gratitude, as to desire to make depredations on the property of their neighbors, when their hunger may be appeased, and their taste gratified, by the fruit of trees standing by the road-side. And how much enjoyment would be given to that class, always to be found, in every country, who have no fruit trees of their own, by planting a number of such trees, in every village, and along every public road, for the very purpose of being, and being considered, public property! A more effectual and benevolent way of protecting valuable fruit trees, and preventing depredations, cannot easily be devised. On this point, Gerard, a quaint but earnest old writer upon plants, uses an exhortation, the spirit of which we hope many may be ready to adopt. "Forward," says he, "in the name of God, grafte, set, plant and nourish up trees in every corner of your ground; the labor is small, the cost is nothing; the commodity is great; yourselves shall have plenty; the poor shall have somewhat in time of want, to relieve their necessity; and God shall reward your goode mindes and diligence.—(Herbal, p. 1459.) Loudon says he was much struck with the lines of fruit trees which bordered all the public roads in the south of Germany, the apples and pears being bent almost to the ground with their loads of fruit.

The wood of the pear is of a reddish white color, heavy, firm,