230 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



covered with a fine silky down, convinced me of the 

 specific difference of the two trees.^ 



Our wild pear does not differ much from some of 

 the cultivated varieties. Its fruit is sour, spotted, and 

 narrowing towards the stalk, or nearly spherical on the 

 same tree.^ With many other cultivated species, it is 

 hard to distinguish the individuals of wild origin from 

 fchose which the chance transport of seeds has produced 

 at a distance from dwellings. In the present case it is 

 not difficult. Pear trees are often found in woods, and 

 they attain to a considerable height, with all the con- 

 ditions of fertility of an indigenous plant.^ Let us 

 examine, however, whether in the wide area they occupy 

 a less ancient existence may be suspected in some coun- 

 tries than in others. 



No Sanskrit name for the pear is knovm, whence it 

 may be concluded that its cultivation is of no long stand- 

 ing in the north-west of India, and that the indication, 

 which is moreover very vague, of wild trees in Kashmir 

 is of no importance. Neither are there any Hebrew or 

 Aramaic names,* but this is explained by the fact that 

 the pear does not flourish in the hot countries in which 

 these tongues were spoken. 



Homer, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides mention the 

 pear tree under the names ochnai, apios, or achras. The 

 Latins called it pyrus or pirus,^ and cultivated a great 



* p. sinensis described by Lindley is badly drawn with regard to 

 the indentation of the leaves in the plate in the Botanical Register, and 

 very well in that of Decaisne's Jardin Fruitier du Museum. It is the 

 same species as P. ussuriensis, Maximowicz, of Eastern Asia. 



' Well drawn in Duhamel, TraitS des Arbres, edit. 2, vi. pi. 59 ; and in 

 Decaisne, Jard. Frui. du Mus., pi. 1, figs. B and C. P. halansoe, pi. 6 of 

 the same work, appears to be identical, as Boissier observes. 



' This is the case in the forests of Lorraine, for instance, according 

 to the observations of Godron, De VOrigine Probable des Poiriers Cultives, 

 8vo pamphlet, 1873, p. 6. 



* Rosen aiiiller, Bibl. Alterth. ; Low, Aramaeische Pflanzennamen, 1881. 



* The spelling Pyrus, adopted by Linnaeus, occurs in Pliny, Eistoria, 

 edit, 1631, p. 301. Some botanists, purists in spelling, write pirus, so 

 that in referring to a modern work it is necessary to look in the index 

 for both forms, or run the risk of believing that the pears are not in the 

 work. In any case the ancient name was a common name ; but the true 

 botanical name is that of Linnaeus, founder of the received nomen- 

 clature, and Linnaeus wrote Pyrus. 



