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PEAR. PYRUS. 



Natural order, Pomacea. A genus of the Icosandria 

 Pentagynia class. 



" Now let me graft my pears, and prune the vine ; 

 The fruit is theirs, the labour only mine." 



Virgil. 



THE Latin name is supposed to be from irvp, fire, and 

 which we consider was given it from the growth of the 

 tree, which is generally in the shape of a flame, and not 

 from the pyramidical form of the fruit, as is commonly 

 stated. 



The accounts we have of this fruit are of great anti- 

 quity, as the pear-tree was consecrated to Minerva pre- 

 viously to,the olive. 



The earliest writers mention it as a fruit growing abun- 

 dantly in Syria and Egypt, as well as in Greece ; and it 

 appears to have been brought into Italy from these places 

 about the time that Sylla made himself master of the 

 latter country, although there is no doubt but the Romans 

 had several kinds of this fruit before that time. Virgil 

 speaks of pears which he had from Cato ; and Columella 

 mentions a considerable variety of pears. Pliny writes of 

 them in his 15th book, chap. 2, as being then exceedingly 

 numerous in Italy : " some have," says he, " no other 

 name than the country from whence they came, as the 



