GOG 



POMACES. X. PYRUS. 



for centuries, and still keep its health, productiveness, and vigour. 

 " The period at which the Teinton squash pear first sprang from 

 seed," Mr. Knight observes, " probably now cannot at all be 

 ascertained ; but I suspect from its present diseased and worn- 

 out state, that it existed at least as early as the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century ; for another kind, the barland, which was 

 much cultivated in the early part of the seventeenth century, 

 still retains a large share of health and vigour ; and the iden- 

 tical trees which supplied the inhabitants of Herefordshire in 

 the 17th century with liquor, are likely to do the same good to 

 those of the 19th." The remarks on the history of the apple 

 will apply, almost without exception, to the pear. The Romans 

 in Pliny's time possessed 32 sorts, and the fruit is still more 

 valued than the apple, both in Italy and France. 



Use. As a dessert fruit, the pear is much esteemed, and ge- 

 nerally preferred to the apple. It is also used for baking, com- 

 pots, marmalade, &c. Dried in an oven, the fruit will keep 

 upwards of a year, either with or without syrup. This mode 

 of preparing the pear is about as common in France as the 

 making of apple pies in this country. Bosc (Nouveau Cours 

 d'Agric. in loco.) describes two methods of drying pears for 

 preservation, and adds that he has tried them after 3 years' 

 keeping, and found them still very good. Perry, the poire of 

 the French, is made from the fermented juice, in the manner of 

 cider, and the best sorts are said by Withering to be little infe- 

 rior to wine. The wood of the pear tree is light, smooth, and 

 compact, and is used by turners and to make joiners' tools, and 

 picture frames to be dyed black. The leaves will produce a yel- 

 low dye, and may be used to give a green to blue cloths. 



Criterion of a good pear. Dessert pears are characterised by 

 a sugary aromatic juice, with the pulp soft and sub-liquid, or 

 melting, as in the bewres or butter pears. Kitchen pears should 

 be large of size, with the flesh firm, neither breaking nor melt- 

 ing, and rather austere than sweet, as the wardens. Perry pears 

 may be either large or small, but the more austere the taste the 

 better will be the liquor. Excellent perry was made from the 

 wild pear. 



Varieties. Tusser, in 1573, in his list of fruits, mentions 

 " peeres of all sortes." Parkinson enumerates 64 sorts ; Mor- 

 timer, 1708, has many sorts, and Miller has selected 80 sorts, 

 and describes them from Tournefort. In France, the varieties 

 of the pear are much more numerous than even the varieties 

 of the apple. The Catalogue of the Luxembourg contains 

 189 select sorts. The catalogue published by the Horticultural 

 Society in the present year contains 677, which, until it ap- 

 peared, the nomenclature of pears was in a very imperfect state ; 

 this list we insert without any variation. " The new and supe- 

 rior sorts which have of late been added to this important class 

 of fruits, are found to be most valuable. The greater part of 

 tSiem have been obtained from Belgium, and some of them have 

 far exceeded the expectations generally formed of them on their 

 first introduction, especially as regards their adaptation to this 

 climate, in which many, instead of requiring the assistance of 

 walls, as all the best old sorts do, produce abundantly and in 

 great perfection on standards. A knowledge of the excellence 

 of these new kinds has occasioned a great number of the old 

 sorts, formerly reckoned very good, to be now marked as only 

 second-rate in the following table. The sorts distinguished as 

 being of the first-rate quality are still too numerous for any col- 

 lection ; the character of first-rate, as relates merely to quality, 

 could not, however, be withheld from many which nevertheless 

 will be found to deserve only secondary estimation, when their 

 properties, as exhibited in the other columns, are attended to. 

 In a collection so rich in good sorts, possessing also hardiness 

 and abundant bearing, none ought to be cultivated for the table 

 except those of the first excellence. Where kinds of secondary 



or inferior quality are marked as table fruit in the following 

 enumeration, it may be understood as only indicating their having 

 been used as such, and being of a nature rather adapted for that 

 than for perry or kitchen use. In regard to situation, it may be 

 necessary to state, that those marked as succeeding as standards, 

 are calculated to do so in the southern and middle parts of the 

 kingdom, or even considerably more to the northward, in parti- 

 cularly well-sheltered places." Hort. cat. 106. The abbrevia- 

 tions are as follow : 



Prevailing colour, p. pale ; d. dark ; b. brown ; y. yellow ; 

 r. red ; g. green ; rus. russet. 



Form. pyr. pyriform ; o. pyr. obtuse pyriform ; obo. obo- 

 vate ; ro. roundish ; obi. oblong ; irr. pyr. irregularly pyriform : 

 turb. turbinate; obt. ell. obtuse-elliptic; ob. oblate ; rou. round. 



Size. 1, large; 2, middle-sized ; 3, small. 



Use. K. kitchen ; T. table ; P. perry. 



Texture. C. crisp; B. buttery; J. juicy; T. tender, such as 

 are softer than the crisp yet not so fine as the buttery. 



Quality. 1, first-rate; 2, second-rate ; 3, indifferent or bad. 



Season. The months of ripening are placed in numbers, 1 for 

 Jan., 2 for Feb., and so forth. 



Situation. W. wall ; S. standard. 



