THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 21 



fruits are mentioned by all early writers on plants. That varieties of fruits 

 would not come true to seed was early known, and propagation by cuttings, 

 layers, and grafting was invented to preserve choice sorts. Many of the 

 early writers name varieties, tell from whence they came, and some set 

 forth a remarkable character or two, but none give detailed descriptions. 

 Cordus was first to engage in this sort of enterprise. 



This chapter from Cordus is important, too, because it makes plain 

 that the pears grown in Germany four hundred years ago possessed all the 

 characters to be found in modern pears. Culture has increased size, modified 

 shapes, augmented flavors, brightened colors, and softened textures, but 

 no characters that can be considered new or distinct, unit characters 

 of the plant-breeder, have been introduced in the four centuries that have 

 gone by. The characters possessed by these German pears are the same, 

 so far as can be made out, as those of the varieties grown by the Greeks 

 and Latins nearly 2000 years earlier. From this, the inference must be 

 drawn that the characters of the pear have not originated under cultivation 

 but exist in wild types. New and distinct characters can come only by 

 hybridization with another species. Pears within a species are changed 

 only by a recombination of the characters possessed by the species. 



The descriptions of varieties from Cordus ' that follow are commended 

 to pomologists as models of brevity and accuracy. These word-pictures 

 reproduce the pears as vividly as an artist could paint them. One sees 

 at once that Cordus was no compiler. Such descriptions as Cordus writes 

 can be made only in the orchard with the pear in hand. 



" The domesticated pear-tree is like the wild tree in trunk, bark, 

 timber, leaves and blossoms, but has straighter and more shapely boughs 

 and leaves a little larger. Of the fruits themselves, which we call pears, 

 there are innumerable kinds, of which we will describe some that are found 

 in Germany, adding also their German names, which vary, however, in 

 the different provinces. 



" Prohstbirn, that is, Provost pear, so-called from their broad base, 

 near the stalk end in a blunt point, have a length of three inches, breadth 

 a little less. Their color is pale green, speckled with green spots or dots; 

 they are astringent to the taste, and by the abundance of their juice 

 extinguish thirst. They ripen at the beginning of autumn, and quickly 

 decay because of the abundance of watery and rather cold juice. They 

 are found in abundance at Eisleben near the Harz forest in Saxony. 



' Cordus, Valerius Hist. PI. 3:176-182. 1561. 



The writer is indebted to Professor H. H. Yeames, Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., for the translation 

 of this chapter from the original text. 



