8 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



first ancient writer to take note, thereby justifying, in small degree, it is 

 true, the appellation often given him, " the most modern of all the ancients." 

 Varro also tells how pears should be stored. While, therefore, he says 

 nothing that helps in following the evolution of the pear, yet his accounts 

 of grafting and storing make plain the fact that this fruit was a standard 

 product of the times. Were it worth while, still other early Roman treatises 

 on husbandry might be quoted to establish the place of the pear in the 

 agriculture of ancient Rome, but it is chiefly in the evolution of the fruit 

 we are concerned and so pass from Varro to Pliny, who, in his Natural 

 History, adds to Cato's six varieties thirty-five new sorts, giving a total 

 of forty-one for the generation following Christ. 



Pliny, more or less discredited as a scientist because he was a compiler 

 and, as the men of science for science sake never forget to point out, at 

 all times of a utilitarian bent of mind, makes a most important contribution 

 to the history of the pear as a domesticated fruit. Indefatigable compiler as 

 he was, few cultivated pears of his or more ancient times could have escaped 

 his notice, and the thread of the utilitarian running through his Natural 

 History makes all the more important what he has to say in this study 

 of the domestication and improvement of the pear. A good authority 

 says that there are sixty manuscript copies of Pliny and eighty different 

 editions, no two of which are exactly alike. Allowing some latitude, there- 

 fore, to the translator, Pliny's descriptions of pears run as follows: 



' For the same reason (as in the case of apples) in the case of pears 

 the name Superba (proud) is given; these are small, but earliest ripe. 

 The Crustumia are most pleasant to all ; next to these the Falerna, so called 

 from the wine, since they have such abundance of sap or milk, as it is called; 

 among these are those which others call Syrian from their dark color. Of 

 the rest, some are called by one name in one place and by another in 

 another. Some by their Roman names reveal their discoverers, as the 

 Decimiana, and what they call the Pseudo-Decimiana, derived from that; 

 the Dolabelliana with their long stalk ; the Pomponiana of protuberant (full- 

 breasted) shape; the Liceriana; the Seviana and those which spring from 

 these, the Turraniana, distinguished by their length of stalk; the Favoniana 

 of reddish color, a little larger than the Superba; the Lateriana; the 

 Aniciana, which ripens in late autumn and has a pleasant acid flavor. 

 The Tiberiana are so called because the Emperor Tiberius was very fond 

 of them. They get more color from the sun and grow to larger size, but 

 otherwise are the same as the Liceriana. These bear the name of the 

 country from which they come; the Amerina, latest of all; the Picentina; 

 the Numantina; the Alexandria; the Numidiana; the Greek and among 



