234 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



have pears, white in the inside, meUinsr, and with a 

 fratjrant smell, of the enormous weig-ht of ten pounds 

 each. 



The wood of the pear is much firmer than that of 

 the apple, and it is much less liable to be attacked 

 by insects, or to decay. In some of the old orchards, 

 where the apple-trees have wholly disappeared, the 

 pears are in full vigour, and bear abundantly. This 

 is remarkably the case at the old Abbey-gurden at 

 Lindores, on the south bank of the Tav, in the 

 county of Fife : disease could have nothing to do 

 with the death of the apple-trees there, as the soil is 

 one of the very best for api)les in the kingdom, 

 being fine strong black loam to a great depth. Yet 

 there are many old apple-trees in the kingdom. At 

 Horton, in Buckinghamshire, Avhere Milton spent 

 some of his earlier years, there is an apple-tree still 

 growing, of which the oldest people remember to 

 have heard it said that the poet was accustomed to sit 

 under it. And upon the low leads of the church at 

 Rumsey, in Hampshire, there is an apple-tree still bear- 

 ing fi-uit, which is said to be two hundred years old. 



The fruit catalogue of the Hortictiltural Society 

 contains above six hundred varieties of the pear ; 

 and it is there observed, that " the newly intro- 

 duced Flemish kinds are of much more importance 

 than the greater part of the sorts which have been 

 hitherto cultivated in Great Britain, and when 

 brought into use will give quite a new feature to 

 the dessert." 



The QcixcE — Cydonia vulgaris. 



The quince was introduced into Europe, according 

 to Pliny, from the island of Crete. From the large- 



