PEAR.-PYRUS. 



In Botany, a Genus of the Icosandria Penta- 

 gynia Class. 



THE accounts we have of this fruit are of 

 great antiquity, as the pear-tree was conse- 

 crated to Minerva previous to the olive. 



The earliest writers mention it as a fruit 

 growing abundantly 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 Colu- 

 mella 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 when ce they caine, 



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