S26 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



cal^ obtuse, serrate; the flowers in terminating 

 villose corymbs produced from wood of the 

 preceding year, or from buds gradually formed 

 on tliat of several years' growtli on the extremi- 

 ties of very short protruding shoots, teclinically 

 called spurs. It is found in a wild state in 

 England, and abundantly in France and Ger- 

 many, as well as other parts of Europe, not ex- 

 cepting Russia, as far nortli as latitude 57°. It 

 grows in almost any soil. The cultivated tree 

 differs from the apple not only in having a ten- 

 dency to the pyramidal form, but also in being 

 more apt to send out tap roots, in being, as a 

 seedling plant, longer of coming to bearing, tak- 

 ing from fifteen to sixteen years ; and when on 

 its o^vn root, or grafted on a wild pear stock, of 

 being much longer lived. In a dry soil it will 

 exist for centuries, and still keep its health, pro- 

 ductiveness, and vigour. The pear has been 

 known from the remotest antiquity. 



Amongst the trees which Homer desciibes as 

 forming the orchard of Laertes, the father of 

 Ulysses, we find the pear. Pliny mentions several 

 sorts of pears wliich were grown in Italy, and 

 particularly mentions that a fermented liquor 

 was formed of their expressed juice. It is pro- 

 bable that the Romans brouglit the cultivated 

 pear to England^ and that the monks paid great 

 attention to its varieties. There is a tradition 

 that King Jolin was poisoned in a dish of pears 

 by the monks of S winstead ; and the tale, whether 

 true or false, would imply that tlie fruit was 

 such as the churchmen would offer to the mon- 

 arch as a luxury. In an old book of household 

 accounts of Henry VIII., there is an item of 

 twopence " to a woman who gaff the kyng peres;" 

 and in the time of Gerard, we find that great 

 attention was paid to their growth by the nur- 

 serymen in the neighbourhood of London. The 

 old herbalist, after declaring that in his time to 

 write of the sorts of apples and pears, "and 

 those exceeding good," would require "a par- 

 ticular volume," adds, " Master Richard Pointer 

 has them all growing in his ground at Twicken- 

 ham, near London, who is a most cunning and 

 curious grafter and planter of all manner of rare 

 fruits; and also in the ground of an excellent 

 grafter and painful planter. Master Henry Bun- 

 bury, of Touthil street near unto "Westminster; 

 and likewise in the ground of a diligent and most 

 affectionate lover of plants. Master Warner, neore 

 Ilorsly Down, by London ; and in divers other 

 grounds about London." The neighbourhood of 

 Worcester was probably then celebrated, as at 

 the present day, for the cultivation of this fniit, 

 for three pears are borne in the arms of the 

 city. 



Most of the fine sorts of pears are of contin- 

 ental origin, the horticulturists of France and 

 the Netherlands having paid more attention to 

 that species of fruit than those of England. As 



these varieties have retained their original names, 

 a good many laughable corruptions have been 

 produced in their popular nomenclature. Thus 

 the Bon-chritien, is converted into the Bon- 

 crutching; the Beurri into the Bury; the Chau- 

 montelle into the Charmingtel. Sucli odd names 

 as the bishop's thumb, and many others which 

 our fruiterers use, may probably be traced to a 

 similar cause. In the names of apples there is 

 the same corruption, as Runnet for Reinette. 

 The names of fruits in all countries occasionally 

 present some laugliablo anomalies, such as the 

 "Bon-Chretien Tare," one of the finest of the 

 French pears. 



The Chinese, who are said to carry the culti- 

 vation of fruit to much greater perfection than 

 the European gardeners, are stated by Marco 

 Polo to have pears, white in the inside, melting, 

 and with a fragrant sraeU, of the enormous weight 

 of ten pounds each. 



The wood of the pear is much finr.er than 

 that of the apple, and it is much less liable to be 

 attacked by insects, or to decay. In some of the 

 old orchards, where the apple trees have wholly 

 disappeared, the pears are in full vigour, and 

 bear abundantly. This is remarkably the case 

 at the old Abbey garden at Lindores, on the 

 south bank of the Tay, in the county of Fife : 

 disease could have nothing to do witli the death 

 of the apple trees there, as the soil is one of the 

 very best for apples in the kingdom, being fine 

 strong black loam to a great depth. Yet there 

 are many old apple trees in the kingdom. At 

 Horton, in Buckinghamshire, where Milton 

 spent some of his earlier years, there is an apple 

 tree still growing, of which the oldest people re- 

 member to have heard it said that the poet was 

 accustomed to sit under it. And upon the low 

 leads of the church at Rumsey, in Hampshire, 

 there is an apple tree still bearing fniit, which 

 is said to be two hundred years old. 



The fruit catalogue of the Horticultural So- 

 ciety contains above six hundred varieties of the 

 pear; and it is there observed, that "tlie newly 

 introduced Flemish kinds, are of much more 

 importance than the greater part of the sorts 

 which have been hitherto cultivated in Great 

 Britain, and when brought into use will give 

 quite a new feature to the dessert." 



Good pears are a luscious fruit. They are 

 characterised by a saccharine aromatic juice, a 

 soft and pearly liquid pulp melting in the mouth, 

 as in the hcurrcs or butter pear; or a firm and 

 crisp consistence, as in the winter bergamots. 

 Kitchen pears should be of a large size, with the 

 flesh firm, neither brittle nor melting, and rather 

 austere than sweet, .as the wardens. Pears for 

 the manufacture of pcrr!/, may be either large 

 or small, but the more austere the taste tlie better 

 will be the liquor. The wild pear produces an 

 excellent perry. 



