THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 3 



times. It is doubtful if it has been hybridized with P. communis, parent 

 of nearly all cultivated pears. The Snow pear is not cultivated in America 

 but is to be found in botanical collections. 



From Pyrus serotina came the Japanese, Chinese, or Sand pears of 

 pomologists. The species is a native of central and eastern China and 

 is found wild in Japan, but whether as a native or as an escape from cultiva- 

 tion it is impossible to say. There are three botanical forms of the species 

 and possibly a score of horticultural varieties cultivated for their fruits 

 and as ornamentals. Of all the species of Pyrus found in western Asia, 

 this, in the light of present knowledge, is most closely related to the common 

 pear, with which it hybridizes freely. 



We have now discovered in what countries the progenitors of cultivated 

 pears grow spontaneously, and are therefore ready to search for the first 

 landmarks in the domestication of the three cultivated species. What 

 has ancient literature to say on the subject? We turn first to the Bible 

 and find that the pear is not mentioned in sacred literature, and that, 

 according to commentators on the Sanscrit and Hebrew languages, there 

 is no name in the tongues of Biblical lands for the pear. Nor should we 

 expect ancient notices of the pear in northwest India or Persia, for the 

 pear does not flourish in hot countries. The survey next turns to ancient 

 Greece where landmarks are at once sighted which must be put down as 

 the earliest records of the pear, and as such deserve full consideration. 



THE PEAR IN ANCIENT GREECE 



In ancient Greece we find the first landmarks and begin the history 

 of the pear as a cultivated plant. It is wrong, however, to assume that 

 the beginning of the cultivation of the pear, or of any plant, was contempo- 

 raneous with the writing of even the oldest books. Mention of a cultivated 

 plant in a book is proof that its domestication antedates the writing of the 

 book. It is not easy to imagine tribes of semi-civilized men in southern 

 Europe and Asia who did not make use of the apples, pears, quinces, plums, 

 cherries, almonds, olives, figs, pomegranates, and grapes which grew wild 

 in this land of gardens and orchards, and who did not minister to their 

 needs as husbandmen long before men wrote books. Names for orchard 

 operations, as planting, grafting, and pruning, in the simplest dialects of 

 primitive peoples, establish the fact that husbandry long antedates writ- 

 ing, as would be expected from the greater need of the one than of the 

 other. 



