NAT. OHDER. POMACE.E. 131 



of the United States. It grows in almost any soil. The cultivated 

 tree diflers fi-oni the apple, not only in Iiaving a tendency to the pyra- 

 n»tkd form, but also in being more apt to send out tap roots, in being 

 as a seeding- plant much longer in coming into bearing, and when on 

 its own root, or grafted on a wild Pear stock, of being much longer 

 lived. In a dry soil it will exist for centuries, and still keep its health, 

 productiveness and vigor. The period at which the Tciiiton St/uash 

 Pear first sprang from seed, probably now cannot be ascertained ; — 

 but I suspect from its present diseased and worn out state, that it ex- 

 isted at least as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century ; for 

 another kind, the bnrland, which was much cultivated in the early 

 part of the seventeenth century, still retains a large share of health 

 and vigor ; and we are informed that the identical trees which sup- 

 plied the inhabitants of Herefordshire in the seventeenth century with 

 liquor, are likely to do the same for those of the nineteenth. The re- 

 marks on the history of the apple will apply almost without exception 

 to the Pear. The Romans, in Pliny's time, possessed thirty-two sorts, 

 and the fruit is still more valued dian the apple, both in Italy and 

 France. 



Use. As a dessert fmit, the Pear is much esteemed, and gene- 

 rally preferred to the apple. It is also used for baking, compots, mar- 

 malade, <fcc. Dried in an oven, the fruit will keep a year or more, 

 either with or without sirup. Tliis mode of preparing the Pear is 

 about as common in France as the making of apple-pics in this coun- 

 try. Bosc describes two methods of drying Pears for preservation, 

 and adds that ho has tried them after three years' keeping, and found 

 them still very good. Perry, the jmre of the French, is made from the 

 fermented juice, in the manner of cider, and the best sorts are said by 

 Withering to be little inferior to wine. The wood of the Pear-tree is 

 light, smooth and compact, and is used by turners, and to make join- 

 ers' tools, and picture-frames to be dyed black. The leaves will pro- 

 duce a yellow dye, and may be used to give a green to blue cloths. 



Crki^rion of a good Pear. Dessert Pears are characterized by a 



