MEDLAR.-MESPILUS. 



In Botany, a Genus of the Icosandria Pen- 

 tagynia Class. 



THIS fruit was known to the ancients in 

 Greece, as it is mentioned by one of their 

 authors, Theophrastus, who wrote 300 years, 

 B. C. ; but it appears not to have been cul- 

 tivated in Italy so early, as Pliny states 

 that it was not known in Rome in Cato's 

 days. Pliny mentions three kinds : the 

 Anthedon, the Setanian Medlar, which he 

 describes as the largest and palest in colour, 

 and the Gallicum, or Bastard French Med- 

 lar. 



Some authors affirm it to have been ori- 

 ginally a German fruit ; but the name An- 

 thedon was doubtless given to it from 

 it's being brought from a city of that name 

 in Greece, while the last is declared by this 

 author to have been from France : the Se- 

 tt 



