4 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



Plutarch, a Greek writer, A. D. 50-120, enlightens us as to the early 

 use of the pear by the Greeks, and also as to the Grecian name for the fruit 

 and tree. He says in his Greek Questions (51) : 



" Why do the boys of the Argives playing at a certain festival call 

 themselves Ballachrades? (Ballo, I throw; achras, a wild pear.) 



"It is because they say that those who were first brought down by 

 Inachus (founder of Argos) from the rural districts into the plains were 

 nourished on wild pears (achrades). But wild pears (they say) were first 

 seen by the Greeks in Peloponnesus, when that country was still called 

 Apia; whence wild pears were named apioi. (Apios, a pear-tree; apion, 

 a pear.)" 



The pear is one of the " gifts of the gods " which Homer tells us grew 

 in the garden of Alcinous. It is certain, therefore, whether or not this is 

 the earliest mention of the pear in Greek literature, that in Homer's time, 

 nearly one thousand years before the Christian era, the pear was cultivated 

 in Greece. As this garden of Alcinous furnishes the earliest noteworthy 

 landmarks of the pear, and is moreover the most renowned of heroic times, 

 an early paradise of trees, vines, and herbs, it is worth while to take a look 

 at it with a view of discovering the status of the pear at this early date. 

 Stripped of the harmonious rhyme and pleasing rhythm of Homer's poetry, 

 the garden is described in English prose as follows: 



" And without the court-yard hard by the door is a great garden, 

 of four plough-gates, and a hedge runs round on either side. And there 

 grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and pomegranates, and apple-trees 

 with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in their bloom. The fruit 

 of these trees never perisheth, neither faileth winter or summer, enduring 

 through all the year. Evermore the West Wind blowing brings some 

 fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and apple 

 on apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and fig upon 

 fig. There too hath he a faithful vineyard planted, whereof the one part 

 is being dried by the heat, a sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes 

 men are gathering, and yet others they are treading in the wine-press. In 

 the foremost row are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there 

 be that are growing black to vintaging. There too, skirting the furthest 

 line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, that are perpetually 

 fresh, and therein are two fountains of water, whereof one scatters his 

 streams all about the garden, and the other runs over against it beneath 

 the threshold of the court-yard, and issues by the lofty house, and thence 

 did the townsfolk draw water. These were the splendid gifts of the gods 

 in the palace of Alcinous. 1 " 



1 The Odyssey, Book VII. Translated by S. H. Butcher and A. Lang. 



