640 



THE PEAK. 



thanks to the science and skill of horticulturists, is quite a different 

 morsel for the palate from the pear of two or three centuries ago. In 

 its wild state it is one of the most austere of all fruits, and a choke- 

 pear of our fields, really a great improvement on the wild type, seizes 

 one's throat with such an unmerciful gripe as to leave behind it no 

 soothing remembrances of nectar and ambrosia. 



So long ago as the earliest time of the Romans the pear was con- 

 siderably cultivated. It was common in Syria, Egypt, and Greece, and 

 from the latter country was transplanted into Italy. " Theophrastus 

 speaks of the productiveness of the old pear-trees, and Virgil mentions 

 some pears which he received from Cato. Pliny in his 15 th book de- 

 scribes the varieties in cultivation in his time as exceedingly numer- 

 ous ; and mentions a number which were named after the countries 

 from which they were received. Of all pears, he says, the Costumine 

 is the most delicate and agreeable. The Palernian Pear was esteemed 

 for its juice ; and the Tibernian, because it was preferred by the Em- 

 peror Tiberius. There were i proud pears,' which were so called be- 

 cause they ripened early and would not keep, and £ winter pears,' pears 

 for baking, as at the present day." None of these old Eoman varieties 

 have been handed down to us, and we might believe some of them ap- 

 proached the buttery lusciousness of our modern pears, did not Pliny 

 pithily add, most unfortunately for their reputation, " all pears whatso- 

 ever are but a heavy meat, unless they are well boiled or baked." 



In fact, the really delicious qualities of this fruit were not devel- 

 oped until about the seventeenth century. And within the last sixty 

 years the pear, subjected to constant production from seed by Tan 

 Mons and his followers, and to hybridizing or crossing by Mr. Knight 

 and other English cultivators, appears at length to have reached almost 

 the summit of perfection in beauty, duration, and flavor. Of Professor 

 Van Mons and his labors of a whole life, almost devoted to pears, we 

 have already spoken in our first chapter. Prom among the 80,000 

 seedlings raised by himself, and the many thousands reared by other 

 zealous cultivators abroad, especially in Belgium — the Eden of the pear- 

 tree — there have been selected a large number of varieties of high excel- 

 lence. In this country wo are continually adding to the number, as, 

 in our newer soil, the pear, following the natural laws of successive re- 

 production, is constantly appearing in new seedling forms. The high 

 flavor of the Seckel Pear, an American variety, as yet unsurpassed in 

 this respect by any European sort, proves the natural congeniality of 

 the climate of the Northern States to this fruit. 



The pear-tree is not a native of North America, but was introduced 

 from the other continent. In Europe, Western Asia, and China it 

 grows wild, in company with the aj)ple, in hedges and woody wastes. 

 In its wild state it is hardier and longer lived than the apple, making a 

 taller and more pyramidal head, and becoming thick in its trunk. There 

 are trees on record abroad of great size and age for fruit-trees. M. 

 Bosc mentions several which are known to be near 400 years old. 

 There is a very extraordinary tree in Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, Eng- 

 land — a perry pear — from which were made, more than once, 15 hogs- 

 heads of perry in a single year. In 1805 it covered more than half an 

 acre of land, the branches bending down and taking root, and, in turn, 

 producing others in the same way. Loudon, in his work on trees, says 

 that it is still in fine health, though reduced in size. 



