132 
NAT. ORDER. POMACEjE. 
Criterion of a good Pear. Dessert Pears are characterized by 
a sugary aromatic juice, with the pulp soft and sub-liquid, or melting, 
as in the beurres, or butter Pears. Kitchen Pears should be large of 
size, with the flesh firm, neither breaking nor melting, and rather 
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 was made from the wild Pear. 
Varieties. Tusser, in 1573, in his list of fruits, mentions 
" peeres of all sorts." Parkinson enumerates sixty-four sorts ; Mor- 
timor, 1708, has many sorts, and Miller has selected eighty sorts, and 
describes 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 Luxembourg contains one hundred and eighty- 
nine sorts. The catalogue published by the Horticultural society in 
the present year contains six hundred and seventy-seven, which, until 
it appeared, the nomenclature of Pears was in a very imperfect state. 
The new and superior sorts which have of late been added to this 
important class of fruits, are found to be most valuable. The greater 
part of them have been obtained from Belgium, and some of them 
have far exceeded the expectations generally formed of them on their 
first introduction, especially as regards their adaptation to this cli- 
mate, in which many, instead of requiring the assistance of walls, as 
all the best old sorts do, produce abundantly and in great perfection 
on standards. A knowledge of the excellence of these new kinds 
has occasioned a great number of the old sorts, formerly reckoned 
very good, to be now marked as only second-rate. The sorts distin- 
guished as being of the first-rate quality are still too numerous for 
any collection ; the character of first-rate, as relates merely to quality, 
could not, however, be withheld from many which nevertheless will 
be found to deserve only secondary estimation, when their properties 
are attended to. In a collection so rich in good sorts, possessing also 
hardiness and abundant bearing, none ought to be cultivated for the 
table except those of the first excellence. 
