"The _Pickering_ or _Warden_ Pear. This tree was grafted on the 19th of April, 1775, the day the battle of Lexington was fought, and must have been at that time a small tree. It is called by the owner the _Uvedale Warden_ or _Pickering_ pear, which are synonyms of the _Uvedale's St. Germain_ or _Pound_, but it is entirely distinct from that variety, being much smaller as well as otherwise different. It resembles, and very probably is identical with, a variety which I have known as the _English Warden_, but which I do not find described in any pomological work, and have not seen for years. It is of medium size, turbinate, light yellow, with a dull brownish cheek, in use in winter, for cooking only. Paul Dudley says, in the paper above quoted, 'I have a _Warden_ Pear Tree that measures five Foot six Inches round.' "The Pickering tree contracts suddenly at about a foot from the ground, where it must have been grafted. It shows no sign of being grafted elsewhere. Below the point of grafting, it is full two feet in diameter and is about twenty-five feet high. It stands in a low, moist place. The top was much injured by the great gale of September, 1869, losing several large limbs, but the tree is on the whole in good preservation. In the same garden is a tree probably as old or older, believed to be a _Messire Jean_. "The estate, now much circumscribed from its original extent, on which this tree stands, has been in the same family since 1642, having been purchased in that year by John Pickering, who came from England in 1637, and built the house, now standing and occupied by the owner, in 1651. It is on Broad street, Salem. The tree was grafted by John Pickering, of the fifth generation.