118 FRUIT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 The Medlar. 



THE MEDLAR (Pyrus germanica) is a native of Asia and 

 Europe, and belongs to the Rose family (Rosaceee). It 

 has been found in a wild state in England, but it is doubt- 

 ful if it is really indigenous to this country. Theophras- 

 tus, who wrote 300 B.C., mentions the fruit as being 

 known to the Grecians; and Pliny, the Roman naturalist, 

 refers to three kinds as being grown in Italy early in the 

 Christian era. Tusser, the quaint rhymester, refers to 

 the fruit as Medlars, or Meles, in his day; and Gerarde 

 alludes to the trees as growing in hedges, and to their 

 being grafted upon the Whitethorn. Parkinson also gives 

 a figure of a branch of fruit in his " Paradisi in Sole 

 Paradisus Terrestris," and describes three kinds the 

 "greater and the lesser English, and the Neapolitan." 

 Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, also sings the praises 

 of a Medlar tree in flower : 



" And as I stood and cast aside mine eie 



I was aware of the finest Medlar tree, 

 That ever yet in all my life I sie, 



As full of blossomses as it might be.'' 



The flowers are large, white, and solitary, and borne 

 in June or early July. The fruit is roundish, and crowned 

 by a bread, hairy disc, fringed with a green, leafy calyx. 

 In an unripe state it is hard, brownish in colour, and un- 

 fit to eat; but when gathered and stored until it has 

 assumed a state of partial decay, the flesh mellows, 

 becomes soft, and fit to eat, the flavour possessing a*i 

 agreeable acidity. The fruit, therefore, to be edible, has 

 to become practically semi-decomposed- Fruits that have 

 just begun to ripen make an excellent jelly. In Worces- 

 tershire the fruit is allowed to drop off naturally on the 



