THE PEAR 131 



derived all cultivated Pears from three species : P. 

 per'sica, the ancestral form of the Bergamot Pears ; 

 P. elceagnifo'lia Pall., the Oleaster-leaved Pear of 

 the Caucasus and Asia Minor; and P. sinen'sis, the 

 Sandy or Snow Pear of China and the gardens of 

 India and Japan. Professor Decaisne, however, re- 

 cognised six races, descended from a single species : 

 the Mongolic, represented by P. sinensis ; the Indian, 

 including P. variolo'sa and others ; the Pontic, repre- 

 sented by P. elceagnifolia ; the Hellenic, including 

 P. parvifio'ra, a red-flowered form occurring in Crete, 

 P. sina'ica, which is perhaps identical with P. per- 

 sica, the Wild Bergamot Pear, and others, such 

 perhaps as P. niva'lis Jacq., the Snowy-leaved species 

 of the Austrian Alps, from which some of the culti- 

 vated sorts used in France in the manufacture of perry 

 are probably derived ; the Germanic, including our 

 two commoner forms, P. A'chras Gaertn. and P. 

 Pyras'ter Borkh. ; and lastly, the Keltic, represented 

 by P. corda'ta Desv., formerly known as Briggs'ii 

 Bosw.-Syme. 



This last-mentioned form, with leaves which are 

 heart-shaped at the base, and almost smooth, and 

 with very small globose, Apple-like fruit, is most in- 

 teresting, as occurring in a wild state in Devonshire, 

 Cornwall, and Brittany, and as, in the opinion of com- 

 petent authorities, being perhaps the " Apples " of the 

 " Inis yr Avalon" the Isle of Apples in the Arthurian 

 traditions. 



Pliny describes the varieties of Pear in cultivation 

 in his time as exceedingly numerous, including both 

 early and winter sorts, and mentions thirty-two ; 



