177 



■»- 



seedless fruits are highly appreciated by all classes, both unripe 

 as well as ripe. 



Pear. Pyrus communis, L. (Rosace.e). 



This fruit is botanically a pome, a fleshy fruit with the calyx 

 adherent, and forming along with the epicarp or skin and the 

 mesocarp or pulp, a thick cellular mass which is eatable, while 

 the endocarp is scaly or horny, and forms separate cells enclosing 

 "t the seeds. Its varieties are exceedingly numerous. Pliny' enum- 



erates forty-two kinds as known to the Romans, and Columel- 

 la^ names eighteen sorts. Macrobius^ as quoted by Gesner, al- 

 so furnishes a list, from which Gesner-* quotes with other Roman 

 authors as furnishing twenty praisew^orthy varieties. In Tuscany, 

 in the times of the Medici there were catalogued two hundred 

 ^ and thirty-two kinds'^; Le Jardinier Solitaire, i6i2, describes fif- 



ty-five varieties in France ; Meager, in his English Gardener^ 1683, 

 r gives a list of one hundred and five ; Knoop, in his Pomologia, 



1760-6, figures one hundred and eighty-four kinds in color; 



0^ 





Mawe, in his Gardeners' Dictionary of 1748, enumerates ninety- 

 five ; Don, in his Gardeners' or Botanists' Dictionary, 1832, gives 

 a classified list of six hundred and seventy-seven sorts ; Field, in 

 his Fruit Culture, 1886, offers a catalogue of eight hundred and 

 fifty varieties, of which six hundred and eighty- three are of for- 

 eign and one hundred and sixty-seven of American origin. 



The more delicate varieties of pears, such as the Gansel's Ber- 

 gamot and the Chaumontelle, says LindleyVhave rarely any seeds. 

 On the other hand, R. Manning, deservedly a high authority on 

 pears, tells me that certain varieties, such as Vicar of Wakefield 

 and Beurre Diel have most of the seeds abortive, and the first 

 named is not a delicate pear. The coreless pear" is frequently 

 destitute of seeds, but always contains the cells. The flesh is apt' 

 to decay at the core. It is a good bearer, but the fruit is ex- 



1 Pliny, lib. xv. c. iG. 



2 Col. de re rust. lib. v. c. 10, 



3 Saturnalia, 2. 15. 



4 Gesner. Lexicon Rusticum, 1788. 



5 Targioni-Tozetti, Hort, Trans. 1S54, 159. 



6 Lindley. Theory of Ilort., 1859, p. 170. 



7 Gard. Chron. 1843, 737. 



K 



