146 MEDLAR. COMMON PEAR. 
PENTAGYNIA. 
160. The MEDLAR (Mespilus germanica) is usually 
considered a native English fruit, having been remarked, 
more than a century ago, to grow wild in hedges about 
Minshull in Cheshire. It is distinguished by being depressed 
.and concave at the top, the leaves of the calyx continuing 
upon it; and by its containing several hard, compressed, and 
angular nuts. 
It is the property of the medlar, which is cultivated 
in most large gardens, to be hard, and remarkably 
austere and disagreeable to the taste, until it has, in 
part, undergone the putrefactive fermentation, when it 
becomes a soft, mellow, and, to many palates, a pleasant 
fruit. Medlars are usually gathered from the trees 
about the end of October, or beginning of November. 
To facilitate their becoming fit for the table, they may 
be placed in moist bran ; but such as require to be kept 
for subsequent use should be deposited on dry straw. 
In a fortnight or three weeks those in the bran will be 
eatable, and the others will more gradually ripen. 
After they are perfectly ripe, they, however, soon be- 
come mouldy and decay. 
The wood of the medlar-tree somewhat resembles 
that of the pear-tree, but is of no great value. 
161. The COMMON PEAR is a well-known garden fruit, 
derived from an English stock, the wild pear-tree (ryrus 
communis), which grows in hedges and thickets in Somersetshire 
and Sussex. 
It would be an endless task to describe the different 
known varieties of the cultivated pear.. Some of these 
are very large, and others extremely small ; some have 
a rich and luscious flavour, and others, as the iron pear, 
are so hard and disagreeable to the taste, as to be ab- 
solutely unfit to eat. Pears are chiefly used in des- 
serts ; and one or two of the kinds are stewed with 
sugar, baked, or preserved in syrup. 
