76 FAMILIAR TREES 



years later, " Mespilus," he says, " called in greeke 

 mespile, is of two sortes, the one hath three stones 

 in the fruite, and that kynde is not wyth us. The 

 other kynde hath in the fruite, fyve stones, and 

 thys kynde is commune in Englande, and it is called 

 in englishe a Medler tree." This obviously does not 

 amount to any reference to the tree in a wild state. 



When, in his " Herball," in 1597, Gerard mentions 

 its occurrence, " often-times in hedges among briars 

 and brambles," it is clear from his use of the name 

 " Mespylus sativus " that he is speaking of the 

 cultivated tree, or, as Parkinson calls it, " the great 

 manured Medler," in an escaped condition, for in the 

 earlier writers sativus is always used in this strict 

 sense, as opposed to sylvestris for sylvan, or wild forms. 



It is interesting to remember that it was just when 

 Gerard was writing his " Herball" that Shakespeare was 

 writing Romeo and Juliet, the first of his plays to 

 contain any reference to the Medlar, whilst Richard 

 II, which contains so wonderful an epitome of the 

 whole art of gardening, was printed in the very same 

 year as Gerard's magnum opus. As, owing to its 

 hard core, the seed of the Medlar takes about two 

 years to sprout, the tree is at the present day 

 commonly grafted upon a Pear stock; and we may 

 almost believe that the myriad-minded Shakespeare 

 was aware of such a practice when in As You Like It 

 he makes Rosalind say to Touchstone, " I'll graft" it 

 with you, and then 1 shall graff it with a Medlar : then 

 it will be the earliest fruit i' the country ; for you'll be 

 rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue 

 of the Medlar." 



