No. 11. 



Geography and History of the Pear Tree. 



355 



templada, in large flocks, to visit the maize 

 fields, the kernels of maize may be borne to 

 a distance and thus sown. 



It is the same with maize as with the 

 other cereals of Asia, considered as their 

 native country. So far we may consider 

 America as the native country of maize; 

 neither are those found wild. 



Notwithstanding the many varieties of 

 maize which are found in Mexico, yet there 

 is only to be found the Linnsean species 

 " mais." Here, in this country, indeed, we 

 distinguish two kinds — a maiz alio, and a 

 maiz temporal, but they present no botanical 

 difference. 



The best known cultivated varieties in 

 Mexico are — 



1. Maiz de padus, with small eight-rowed 

 ears: the most unimportant of all the varie- 

 ties cultivated here. 



2. Maiz manchado or Chinesco. A pro- 

 ductive kind, with white, yellow and red 

 kernels; sometimes, also, entirely blue, in 

 which case it is called pinto. 



3. Maiz bianco. A very productive va- 

 riety, which yields a fine, sweet meal. 



4. Maiz amarillo, which is subdivided into 

 two varieties. 



(1.) Maiz amarillo grueso, which is more 

 frequently cultivated, and rarely yields less 

 than two to three ears each, with 300 to 600 

 kernels. 



(2.) Maiz amarillo pequeno, which is 

 somewhat smaller, less stout, but in a fruit- 

 ful soil, weighs 10 to 15 cwt. more than the 

 grueso. 



5. Maiz cuarenteno, better known in Mex- 

 ico under the name of maiz tremes, or olote 

 Colorado, which ripens quickly, and may be 

 planted in the coldest districts in Mexico. 



6. Maiz tardio, or de riego, the most pro- 

 ductive of all the varieties, and that which 

 is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and 

 in many moist regions. It sometimes reaches 

 to 500 per cent. 



Maize succeeds best in a moist and warm 

 climate, but it has the great advantage above 

 other cereals, that it may be successfully 

 cultivated in Mexico as well in the terra ca- 

 lienle (warm districts) as in the terra fria 

 (cold ones.) Its highest limits here are from 

 2000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea, 

 therefore the time necessary for it to ripen 

 is very different. It varies in all the periods 

 from seven months to six weeks. 



Maize is the most important plant in Mex- 

 ico, and the failure of the crop by drought, 

 hail, wind, or disease, produces the saddest 

 consequences. — Patent Office Report, 1847. 



From July, 1844, to July, 1845, 137,300 

 tons of guano were imported into England. 



Geography and History of the Pear Tree. 



The common pear tree is indigenous to 

 Europe, western Asia, the Himalayas, and 

 to China; but not to Africa nor America. It 

 is found wild in most of the counties of Brit- 

 ain, as far north as Forfarshire; on the con- 

 tinent of Europe, from Sweden to the Medi- 

 terranean ; and in Asia, as far east as China 

 and Japan. It is always found on a dry soil, 

 and more frequently on plains than on hills 

 or mountains; and solitary, or in small groups, 

 rather than in woods and forests. The va- 

 rieties cultivated for their fruit succeed both 

 in the temperate and transition zones of the 

 two hemispheres, and it has been remarked 

 that this tree, as well as the apple and the 

 cherry, will grow in the open air, wherever 

 the oak will thrive. 



The earliest writers mention the pear as 

 growing abundantly in Syria, Egypt, and in 

 Greece; and it appears to have been brought 

 into Italy from these places about the time 

 that Sylla made himself master of the last- 

 named country, altiicugh there is but little 

 doubt that the Romans had several kinds of 

 this fruit long before that time. Among the 

 trees which Homer describes as forming the 

 orchard of Laertes, the father of Ulysses, we 

 find the pear. Tlieophrastus speaks of the 

 productiveness of old pear trees; and Virgil 

 mentions some pears which he received from 

 Cato. Pliny describes the varieties in culti- 

 vation, in his time, as being exceedingly nu- 

 merous, and says that a fermented liquor was 

 made of the expressed juice. " Both apples 

 and pears," he says, " have the properties of 

 wine, on which account the physicians are 

 careful how they give them to their patients; 

 but when sodden in wine and water, they are 

 esteemed as wholesome." Again, he ob- 

 serves, — "All pears whatsoever are but a 

 heavy meat, even to those in good health, 

 and the sick are debarred from eating them ; 

 and yet, if they are well boiled or baked, they 

 are exceedingly pleasant, and moderately 

 wholesome; when sodden or baked with 

 honey, they agree with the stomach." Ac- 

 cording to Pownell, the cultivated pear was 

 imported into Marseilles by the Phoceean 

 colonists, sometime dunng the middle ages; 

 and Whitaker thinks that it was introduced 

 into Britain by the Romans, but at what pe- 

 riod, although it is mentioned by all the early 

 writers of that country, we have no account. 

 It was the opinion of Mr. Loudon, that all 

 the wild pears growing in England, origi- 

 nated from the seeds of the cultivated sorts, 

 accidentally disseminated by birds. 



The pear tree is of great longevity, and 

 all writers on the subject, from Theophl-as- 

 tus to the present day, agree that, as the tree 



