Philadelphia in 1777, and served as a member of the committee of public safety, he aided in raising a militia company, became a lieutenant and afterwards a captain, and took part in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Germantown. In 1779–1780 he was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly, where he voted for the abolition of slavery-he freed his own slaves whom he had brought from Maryland. In 1801 he undertook, largely at his own expense, the excavation of the skeletons of two mastodons in Ulster and Orange counties, New York, and in 1802 he established at Philadelphia Peale’s Museum He was one of the founders, in 1805, of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at Philadelphia. At the age of eighty-one Peale painted a large canvas, “Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda,” and at eighty three a full-length portrait of himself, now in the Academy of the Fine Arts. He died at his country home, near Germantown, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of February 1826.
His brother, James Peale (1749–1831), also an artist, painted two portraits of Washington (one now the property of the New York Historical Society, and the other in Independence Hall, Philadelphia), besides landscapes and historical compositions.
PEALE, REMBRANDT (1778–1860), American artist, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of February 1778, the son of Charles Willson Peale (q.v.) He studied under his father, under Benjamin West in London (1802–1803), and in Paris in 1807 and 1809. As early as 1795 he had begun from life a portrait of Washington, Of this he made many replicas, the latest in 1823, purchased by the United States government in 1832, and now in the Capitol of Washington. Peale was one of the first of American lithographers He was an excellent draughtsman, but in colour his work cannot rank with his father’s.
In 1843 he devised for the Philadelphia public schools a system of teaching drawing and penmanship. His portraits include those of President Jefferson, Mrs Madison, Commodores Perry, Decatur, and Bainbridge, Houdon, the sculptor, General Armstrong, and an equestrian portrait of General Washington, now in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. His “Court of Death” (1820) is in the Detroit Art Gallery. In 1825 Peale succeeded
John Trumbull as president of the American Academy of Fine
Arts (founded in 1802 as the New York Academy of Fine Arts),
and he was one of the original members of the National
Academy of Design He wrote several books, among them
Nates on Italy (1831), Reminiscences of Art and Artists (1845).
He died in Philadelphia on the 3rd of October 1860.
A brother, Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825), was one of the earliest of American still-life painters; and another brother, Titian Ramsey Peale (1800–1885), made numerous drawings, some of them in water-colour, in illustration of animal life.
See “Rembrandt Peale,” partly autobiographical, in C. E. Lester’s The Artists of America (New York, 1846).
PEAR (Pyrus communis), a member of the natural order Rosaceae, belonging to the same genus as the apple (P. matus), which it resembles in floral structure. In both cases the so-called fruit is composed of the receptacle or upper end of the flower-stalk (the so-called calyx tube) greatly dilated, and enclosing
within its cellular flesh the five cartilaginous carpels which constitute the “core” and are really the true fruit. From the upper rim of the receptacle are given off the five sepals, the five petals, and the very numerous stamens. The form of the pear and of the apple respectively, although usually characteristic enough, is not by itself sufficient to distinguish them, for there
are pears which cannot by form alone be distinguished from apples, and apples which cannot by superficial appearance be recognized from pears. The main distinction is the occurrence in the tissue of the fruit, or beneath the rind, of clusters of cells filled with hard woody deposit in the case of the pear, constituting
the “grit,” while in the apple no such formation of woody cells takes place. The appearance of the tree—the bark, the foliage,
the flowers—is, however, usually quite characteristic in the
two species Cultivated pears, whose number is enormous, are
without doubt derived from one or two wild species widely
distributed throughout Europe and western Asia, and sometimes
forming part of the natural vegetation of the forests. In England,
where the pear is sometimes considered wild, there is always
the doubt that it may not really be so, but the produce of some
seed of a cultivated tree deposited by birds or otherwise, which
has degenerated into the wild spine-bearing tree knovin as
Pyrus communis.
The cultivation of the pear extends to the remotest antiquity. Traces of it have been found in the Swiss lake-dvsellings, it is mentioned in the oldest Greek writings, and was cultivated by the Romans. The word “pear” or its equivalent occurs in all the Celtic languages, while in Slavonic and other dialects different appellations, but still referring to the same thing, are found—a diversity and multiplicity of nomenclature which led Alphonse de Candolle to infer a very ancient cultivation of the tree from the shores of the Caspian to those of the Atlantic. A certain race of pears, with white down on the under surface of their leaves, is supposed to have originated from P. nivalis, and their fruit is chiefly used in France in the manufacture of Perry (see Cider). Other small-fruited pears, distinguished by their precocity and apple-like fruit, may be referred to P. cordata, a species found wild in western France, and in Devonshire and Cornwall.
Karl Koch considered that cultivated pears were the descendants of three species—P. persica (from which the bergamots have descended), P. elaeagrifolia and P. sinensis. J. Decalsne, who made the subject one of critical study for a number of years, and not only investigated the wild forms, but carefully studied the peculiarities of the numerous varieties cultivated in the jardin des Plantes at Paris, refers all cultivated pears to one species, the individuals of which have in course of time diverged in various directions, so as to form now six races: (1) the Celtic, including P. cordata; (2) the Germanic, including P. communis, P. achras, and P. piraster; (3) the Hellenic, including P. parviflora, P. sinaica and others; (4) the Pontic, including P. elaeagrifolia; (5) the Indian, comprising P. Paschae; and (6) the Mongolic, represented by P. sinensis. With reference to the Celtic race, P. cordata, it is interesting to note its connexion with Arthurian legend and the Isle of Avalon or Isle of Apples. An island in Loch Awe has a Celtic legend containing the principal features of Arthurian story; but in this case the word is “berries” instead of “apples” Dr Phené visited Armorica (Brittany) with a view of investigating these matters, and brought thence fruits of a small berry-like pear, which were identified with the Pyrus cordata of western France.
Cultivation.—The pear may be readily raised by sowing the pips of ordinary cultivated or of wilding kinds, these forming what are known as free or pear stocks, on which the choicer varieties are grafted for increase. For new varieties the flowers should be fertilized with a view to combine, in the seedlings which result from the union, the desirable qualities of the parents. The dwarf and pyramid trees, more usually planted in gardens, are obtained by grafting on the quince stock, the Portugal quince being the best; but this stock, from its surface-rooting habit, is most suitable for soils of a cold damp nature The pear-stock, having an inclination to send its roots down deeper into the soil, is the best for light dry soils, as the plants are not then so likely to suffer in dry seasons. Some of the liner pears do not unite readily with the quince, and in this case double working is resorted to; that is to say, a vigorous-growing pear is first grafted on the quince, and then the choicer pear is grafted on the pear introduced as its foster parent
In selecting young pear trees for walls or espaliers, some persons prefer plants one year old from the graft, but trees two or three years trained are equally good The trees should be planted immediately before or after the fall of the leaf. The wall trees require to be planted from 25 to 30 ft. apart when on free stocks, and from 15 to 20 ft. when dwarfed. Where the trees are trained as pyramids or columns they may stand 8 or 10 ft. apart, but standards in orchards should be allowed at least 30 ft., and dwarf bush trees half that distance.
In the formation of the trees the same plan may be adopted as in the case of the apple For the pear orchard a warm situation is very desirable, with a soil deep, substantial, and thoroughly drained. Any good free loam is suitable, but a calcareous loam is the best Pear trees worked on the quince should have the stock covered up to its junction with the graft. This is effected by raising up a small mound of rich compost around it, a contrivance which induces the graft to emit roots into the surface soil,
