Book I. 



PEAR. 



703 



water, together with amputation when it has been some time at work, is the only means of destroying this 

 insect ; but even this will not do, unless resorted to at an early stage of its progress. The caterpillars of 

 many species of butterfly and moth, and the larvee of various other genera of the hemiptera and lepidop. 

 tera, &c. as Scarabcsus, Curculi, &c. attack the apple-tree in common with other fruit-trees ; and on a 

 large scale it is difficult, if not impracticable, to avoid their injurious effects. Burning straw or other 

 materials under the trees has been long recommended ; ~ but the principal thing to be relied on, in our 

 opinion, is regimen ; that is, judicious sub-soil and surface soil, culture, and pruning. 



4432. Other j}oints of culture ha,\e been already given. See Chap. II. and III. and 

 Jbr gathering and storing the crops, see Chap. IV. Sect. X. and Chap. V. Sect. III. 



SuBSECT. 2. Pear. — Pyrus Communis, L. {Eng. Pot. 1784.) Icos. Di-Pentag. L. 

 and Rosacea;, J. Poirier, Fr. ; Birnbaum, Ger ; and Pero, Ital. 



4433. The pear-tree, in its wild state, is a thorny tree, with upright branches, tending 

 to the pyramidal form, in which it differs materially from the apple-tree. The twigs or 

 spray hang down ; the leaves are elliptical, obtuse, serrate ; the flowers in terminating vil- 

 lose coiymbs, produced from wood of the preceding year, or from buds gradually 

 formed on that of several years' growth, on the extremities of very short protruding 

 shoots called, technically, spurs. It is found in a wild state in England, and abund- 

 antly in France and Germany, as well as other parts of Europe, not excepting Russia, 

 as far north as lat. 51. It grows in almost any soil. The cultivated tree differs from 

 the apple, not only in having a tendency to the pyramidal form, but also in being more 

 apt to send out tap-roots ; in being, as a seedling plant, longer (generally from fifteen to 

 eighteen years) of coming into bearing ; and when on its own 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, productiveness, and vigor. " The period at which the teinton 

 squash first sprang from the seed, Knight observes, probably, cannot now be at all 

 ascertained; but I suspect, from its present diseased and worn-out state, that it ex- 

 isted at least as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century : for another kind, the 

 bai'land, which was much cultivated in the early part of the seventeenth century, still re- 

 tains a large share of health and vigor ; and the identical trees which supplied the 

 inhabitants of Herefordshire in the seventeenth century with liquor, are likely to do 

 the same good oflRce to those of the nineteenth." Our remarks on the history of the 

 apple will apply almost without exception to the pear. The Romans, in Pliny's time, 

 possessed thirty-six varieties, and the fruit is still more valued, both in Italy and France, 

 than the apple. 



4434. Use. As a dessert fruit the pear is much esteemed, and generally preferi-ed to 

 the apple. It is also used for baking, compotes, marmalade, &c. Pared and dried in 

 the oven, the fruit will keep several years, either with or without sugar. This m.ode of 

 preparing the pear is about as common in France as the making of apple-pies is in this 

 country ; and what is favorable to the practice is, that bad eating sorts answer best for 

 drying. Bosc {Nouveau Cours (TAgric- in loco) describes two methods of drying pears 

 for preservation ; and adds, that he has tried them after three years' keeping, and found 

 them still very good. Perry, the jwire of the French, is made from the fermented juice, 

 in the manner of cider, and the best sorts are said by Withering to be little inferior to 

 wine. The wood of the pear-tree is light, smooth, and compact, and is used by turners, 

 and to make joiners' tools, picture-frames to be dyed black, &c. The leaves will pro- 

 duce a yellow dye, and may be used to give a green to blue cloths. 



4435. Criterion of a good pear. Dessert pears are characterised by a sugary aromatic 

 juice, with the pulp soft and sub-liquid, or melting, as in the beurr^s, or butter-pears ; 

 or of a firm and crisp consistence, or breaking, as in the winter bergamots. Kitchen 

 jiears should be of large size, with the flesh firm, neither breaking nor melting, and ra- 

 ther austere than sweet, as the wardens. Perry pears may be either large or small ; 

 but the more austere the taste, the better will be the liquor. Excellent perry is made 

 from the wild pear. 



4436. Varieties. Tusser, in 1573, in his list of fruits, mentions " peeres of all sorts." 

 Parkinson enumerates sixty-four varieties ; Mortimer, in 1708, has many sorts ; and 

 Miller has selected eighty sorts, and described them from Tournefort. In France, the 

 varieties of the pear are much more numerous than even the varieties of the apple. The 

 catalogue of the Luxemburg nursery at Paris contains 189 select sorts. ^ The British 

 nursery lists at the present time contain from two to three hundi'ed names, among which, 

 it may be observed, the number of good sorts are fewer in proportion than in the apple 

 lists. In the present very imperfect state of the nomenclature of fruits, all we can do is 

 to make a selection from names which have some descriptive particulars attached. We 

 shall arrange them into dessert, kitchen, and peny pears, and each tribe shall be set down 

 in the order of their ripening. 



