Mr. J. Hardy on the Antiquity of some Border Pears. 201 



(" Pompeiana vel Pomponiana."* Others, again, say the 

 " Volema " is this pear ; while again it is claimed for the 

 " Musteum." The Bon-Chretien is not commemorated by 

 Csesalpinus, who wrote in 1583, as being cultivated in his 

 district of Italy. According to Ruellius, who wrote before 

 1537, the French were particularly fond of this pear; so 

 much so, that while Charles VIII. of France spent his time 

 luxuriously at Naples during his invasion of Italy in 1495, 

 it was transported thither to gratify him, and for its good 

 qualities it was adopted by Campania the Happy-f*. The 

 pears may have been really carried from France to please 

 the Court, but that they stocked the district is rather im- 

 probable. According to Commines, the king was only a year 

 and two months in Italy, from his departure to his return 

 to France:}:. Moreover, from the statement of Agostino 

 Gallo, who wrote in 1550, the "Peri boni Christiani " were 

 then common in Italian gardens §. It was, perhaps, the 

 great propensity of the French for this fruit that induced 

 Rabelais to ridicule them for it ; or he may have heard of 

 the singular compensation of Charles VIII. to the Naopoli- 

 tans for his ravages, as if they could be appeased like 

 whipped children by a present of fruit. In the voyage of 

 his hero and his company, they land upon an island in the 

 ocean whose natives, the Papimans, are such devoted 

 Romanists that they were ready not only to adore the Pope 

 but to prostrate themselves at the feet of any who had seen 

 him. The voyagers refuse the honours intended for them, 

 but are liberally feasted after mass by Homenas, the bishop 

 of Papimany. " Before we arose from table, Homenas gave 

 us a great quantity of fair large pears, saying, Here, my 

 good friends, these are singular good pears ; you will find 

 none such anywhere else, I dare warrant. Every soil bears 

 not everything, you know: India alone boasts black ebony; 

 the best incense is produced in Sabsea ; the sphragitid earth 

 at Lemnos : so this island is the only place where such fine 

 pears grow. You may, if you please, make nurseries with 

 their kernels in your own country. I like their taste 

 extremely, said Pantagruel. If they were sliced, and put 

 into a pan with wine and sugar, I fancy they would be 



* Dalechamp, " Hist. Gen. Plant.," i., 306. " C. Plinii Secund. a J. 

 Dalecampio." (1587), p. 301. 



f Ruellius, " de Nat. Stirpium," p. 232. 



% " Hist, of Philip de Commines," London, 1674, p. 327. 



§ "Le Vinte Giornanti dell' Agricultural' 



