THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 21 
fruits are mentioned by all early writers on plants. That varieties of fruits 
would not come true to seed was early known, and propagation by cuttings, 
layers, and grafting was invented to preserve choice sorts. Many of the 
early writers name varieties, tell from whence they came, and some set 
forth a remarkable character or two, but none give detailed descriptions. 
Cordus was first to engage in this sort of enterprise. 
This chapter from Cordus is important, too, because it makes plain 
that the pears grown in Germany four hundred years ago possessed all the 
characters to be fourid in modern pears. Culture has increased size, modified 
shapes, augmented flavors, brightened colors, and softened textures, but 
no characters that can be considered new or distinct, unit characters 
of the plant-breeder, have been introduced in the four centuries that have 
gone by. The characters possessed by these German pears are the same, 
so far as can be made out, as those of the varieties grown by the Greeks 
and Latins nearly 2000 years earlier. From this, the inference must be 
drawn that the characters of the pear have not originated under cultivation 
but exist in wild types. New and distinct characters can come only by 
hybridization with another species. Pears within a species are changed 
only by a recombination of the characters possessed by the species. 
The descriptions of varieties from Cordus ' that follow are commended 
to pomologists as models of brevity and accuracy. These word-pictures 
reproduce the pears as vividly as an artist could paint them. One sees 
at once that Cordus was no compiler. Such descriptions as Cordus writes 
can be made only in the orchard with the pear in hand. 
‘The domesticated pear-tree is like the wild tree in trunk, bark, 
timber, leaves and blossoms, but has straighter and more shapely boughs 
and leaves a little larger. Of the fruits themselves, which we call pears, 
there are innumerable kinds, of which we will describe some that are found 
in Germany, adding also their German names, which vary, however, in 
the different provinces. 
“* Probstbirn, that is, Provost pear, so-called from their broad base, 
near the stalk end in a blunt point, have a length of three inches, breadth 
a little less. Their color is pale green, speckled with green spots or dots; 
they are astringent to the taste, and by the abundance of their juice 
extinguish thirst. They ripen at the beginning of autumn, and quickly 
decay because of the abundance of watery and rather cold juice. They 
are found in abundance at Eisleben near the Harz forest in Saxony. 
1 Cordus, Valerius Hist. Pl. 3:176-182. 1561. 
The writer is indebted to Professor H. H. Yeames, Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., for the translation 
of this chapter from the original text. 
