NAT. ORDER. POMACEiE. 
131 
of the United States. It grows in almost any soil. The cultivated 
tree differs from the apple, not only in having a tendency to tha 
pyramidal form, but also in being more apt to send out tap roots, in 
being as a seeding plant much longer in 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 Pear first sprang from seed, probably now cannot 
be ascertained ; but I suspect from its present diseased and worn out 
state, that it existed at least as early as the beginning of the sixteenth 
century ; for another kind, the barlaud, which was much cultivated 
in the early part of the seventeenth century, still retains a large 
share of health and vigor ; and we are informed that the identical 
trees which supplied the inhabitants of Herefordshire in the seven- 
teenth century with liquor, are likely to do the same for those of the 
nineteenth. The remarks on the history of the apple will apply al- 
most without exception to the Pear. The Romans, in Pliny's time, 
possessed thirty-two sorts, and the fruit is still more valued than the 
apple, both in Italy and France. 
Use. As a dessert fruit, the Pear is much esteemed, and gene- 
rally preferred to the apple. It is also used for baking, compots, 
marmalade, &c. Dried in an oven, the fruit will keep a year or 
more, either with or without sirup. This mode of preparing the 
Pear is about as common in France as the making of apple-pies in 
this country. Bosc describes two methods of drying Pears for pre- 
servation, and adds that he has tried them after three years' keeping, 
and found them still very good. Perry, the poire 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 tur- 
ners, and to make joiners' tools, and picture-frames to be dyed black. 
The leaves will produce a yellow dye, and may be used to give a 
green to blue cloths. 
