THE QUINCE. 41 



that the unexpressed juice of the perry pear is so harsh 

 and acrid as to cause great heat and long-continued irri- 

 tation of the throat if an attempt be made to eat it, yet 

 no sooner is it separated from the pulp by simple pressure 

 than it at once becomes rich and sweet, with no more 

 roughness than is agreeable to most palates. As pears 

 were deemed by the Romans an antidote against poisonous 

 fungi, so perry is still reckoned the best thing to be taken 

 after a surfeit of mushrooms. Though it will not keep 

 nearly so long as cyder, it yet contains more alcohol, and 

 also makes better vinegar, while the residue left after 

 pressure serves very well for fuel, for which purpose that 

 of cyder is useless. The bark of the pear-tree yields a 

 yellow dye, and its wood is eminently serviceable to Art, 

 being much employed not only for making parts of mu- 

 sical instruments, but also to furnish blocks for wood 

 engraving. The wood of the wild pear is extremely hard, 

 that of the cultivated kind much lighter and soft. 



CHAPTEE III. 

 THE QUINCE. 



WHAT 's in a name ? " said Shakespeare, and in an- 

 swering himself he found among the flowers an illustration 

 of its nothingness, yet do researches among fruits tend 

 rather to induce the opposite conclusion ; for while the 

 accumulated glory of traditionary ages has gathered round 

 one of our orchard fruits, which yet has very limited pre- 

 tensions thereto, simply because we call it by the vene- 

 rable name of apple, another, which has far greater claims 

 to be honoured for the place it holds in the lore of an- 

 tiquity, is yet commonly passed by, unnoticed and ne- 

 glected, owing to the disguise of a modern appellation dis- 

 connecting it from the classical reminiscences with which 

 it was once associated. Were Venus still surviving, to 



