THE MEDLAR 79 
which refers to Minshull in Cheshire, the Medlar has 
been constantly since quoted as wild in that county. 
It finds no mention, however, in the careful posthu- 
mous “Flora of Cheshire” by the late Lord de Tabley, 
When, in 1828, Sir James Edward Smith pub- 
lished his “English Flora,” he seems to have had no 
suspicion that the Medlar was not wild in this 
country. He speaks of it as “ thorny in a wild state,” 
quotes the Rev. J. Davies as having found it “ about 
Ashburnham, Sussex, truly wild,” and adds, “The 
thorns disappear by culture, and are not to be seen in 
gardens, though I have noticed them on foreign wild 
specimens, and my late friend, Mr. Davies, of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, observed them in Sussex. See 
also the wooden cuts of old authors.” We venture to 
surmise, however, that this statement about thorns 
disappearing on cultivation is pure theory so far as 
Sir J. E. Smith is concerned; and we very much 
doubt whether anyone in modern times has subjected 
it to the test of experiment. The occurrence of the 
‘spinous variety in Sussex, Surrey (where it was 
recorded many years ago), and Devon may, perhaps, 
therefore, suggest that the bush is as truly wild in the 
south of England as in the north of France. It has 
not, like the Crab-apple, been carefully preserved in 
our ancient deer-forests, and is now certainly rare. On 
the other hand, it must be admitted that all hedge- 
row localities are suspicious, and that birds and, 
perhaps, even more probably, squirrels may have 
contributed to its dissemination from gardens. 
It is more as an ornamental than as a fruit-bearing 
tree that the Medlar is valued in our gardens to-day. 
