THE BARTLETT PEAR AND ITS ANCESTOR 
The wild pear which grows throughout the southern parts of Europe and Western Asia 
was brought under cultivation in prehistoric times, and has evolved into the delicious 
fruit of the Bartlett type, a small specimen.of which is shown below. The wild 
fruit, shown above, is not actually the Pyrus communis which is the reputed ancestor 
of the Bartlett, but the Snow Pear (P. nivalis), the fruit of which is practically 
identical. The leaves differ, but the differences are so slight that some botanists 
have considered the Snow Pear nothing more than a variety of P. communis, a good 
photograph of which was not obtainable. Photograph (natural size) from the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Fig. 1.) 
