October 22, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
353 
COMING EVENTS 
22 
Th 
Fear Congress at Chiswick to November 4th. 
23 
F 
24 
S 
25 
SUN 
Twemy-piksi Sunday after Trinity. 
26 
M 
Royal Horticultural Society. Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a.m. 
27 
TU 
[Chrysanthemum and Vegetable Shows. 
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W 
THE HISTOEY OF THE PEAE. 
HE Pear Congress of the Eoyal Horticultural 
Society was opened yesterday (Wednesday) at 
Chiswick, and proved in all respects a worthy 
successor to the remarkable display of Apples 
which was provided at the same place two years 
ago. A report of the exhibits appears in another 
portion of this issue, but in view of the interest 
attaching to the important fruit so well repre¬ 
sented in the Chiswick Gardens we give the 
following resume of the chief points in its early history. 
The Hebrews knew the Pear only in its wild state (Agas), 
but Homer places it among the fruits of the garden of 
Alcinous :— 
“ The branch here bends beneath the weighty Pear, 
And verdant Olives flourish round the year. 
The balmy spirit of the western gale, 
Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail: 
Each dropping Pear a following Pear supplies, 
On Apples, Apples, Pigs on Figs arise : 
The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, 
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.” 
Beyond the fact of the ancient Greeks having this fruit 
in cultivation we know nothing; but when we descend a little 
lower in the order of time we find among the early Eomans 
not only considerable knowledge of its cultivation, but that 
they had many varieties, distinguished by names which told 
of their quality, their place of birth, or their first owners. 
Thus Cato, who lived half a century before the birth of our 
Saviour, enumerates, as the most excellent of Pears, the 
Yoleman, Anicianan, and Sementivan ; at the same time 
characterising the time when winter had quite departed, as 
being “ when the Pear begins to blossom.” 
Cato also gives directions for raising the Pear from seed 
and giving them a shelter, which might be adopted even here 
advantageously. He says : “ Sow it very early in the spring. 
Make the beds 5 feet wide ; lay in some pulverised manure; 
spread it and break the clods ; make the bed level, or rather a 
little hollow; then sow the seed thick, like Flax, sift the earth 
over it an inch thick; level the earth with a tablet or with 
your feet; fix poles around, lay perches on them, and lay on 
sprays or hurdles made of the Fig tree, which may keep off 
the cold and the heat. Make them so that a man may be 
able to walk under them. Weed the beds often ; as soon as 
the beds begin to grow take them up, for if you pluck up 
hardy weeds you will take up the Pears with them.” 
Columella, Pliny, and others are still more copious in 
their lists of Pears; and some modern fruitists have endea¬ 
voured to identify these with varieties at present known to 
orchardists. Without expressing any assent to these identi¬ 
fications, yet we think they are not without interest; and we 
would not have the man for our friend who does not care to 
know that he is partaking of fruit descended from trees of 
which Pliny, Cicero, Yarro, Columella, and Virgil may have 
enjoyed the produce. 
To aid our readers in the enjoyment of this pleasant 
No. 278.—' Yol. XI., Third Series. 
possibility we will trace out some particulars which Dale- 
champ and others have suggested upon this subject. 
Columella says: “ We must be careful to plant our 
orchards with the most excellent and fruitful Pears. They 
are these Crustumina.—This was so called from Crustu- 
minum, in Hetruria, where it was most cultivated. Pliny 
says it was of most grateful flavour; and Servius says it was 
small and partly red. Supposed to be our Petit Blanquet, 
Little Blanket. Eegia, or Eoyal.—Pliny says its stalk was 
so short that it grew close to the branch, was oblong in form 
and green in colour. Dalechamp considers it to be the Car- 
maignole. Signina.—So named from Signia, in Italy. 
Pliny says it was by some, from its appearance, called 
Testacea, or Brick-coloured. Dalechamp thinks it is the Cat 
Pear (Poire Chat). Superba.—It is small, says Pliny, but it 
is the earliest. Hardouin and Dalechamp agree that it is our 
Little Muscat. Ordeacea, or Barley Pear; because, says 
Pliny, it was ripe in Barley harvest. It is thought to be our 
St. John’s Pear, or Amire Joannet. Favoniana.—Pliny says 
it was red, and a little larger than the Superba. Dalechamp 
and Hardouin think it is our Great Muscat. Lateritana.— 
Probably from its brick-red colour; is supposed to be the 
Poire Prevost, or Provost Pear. Dolabelliana was named 
after a Eoman citizen, and distinguished for its excessively 
long stalk. Dalechamp thinks it is our Musette d’Automne 
(Autumn Musette), or Pastorale. Yenorea, or Venus Pear.— 
So called, says Pliny, from the beauty of its colours. Dale- 
camp says it is the Poire Acciole. Onychina, the Onyx 
Pear, from its purple tints. Dalechamp thinks it is the Cuisse 
Madame. 
We might extend this catalogue twofold, but, after 
remarking that though the Eomans paid such attention to 
the Pear, it is entirely neglected by the degenerate race now 
occupying the territory of the Seven Hills, we will next pass 
on to the consideration of what has been done to improve this 
fruit in more modern times. 
To show further the knowledge of Pear culture possessed 
by the Eomans we shall not stop to gather together the 
fragments of information sustaining our opinion, which we 
find scattered through the works of Cato, Columella, and 
Yarro, but will turn at once to what is said by the brothers 
Gordian and Maximus Quintilius. They flourished in the 
second century, and in fragments of their writings, in the 
“ Libri xx. Geoponicorum,” we find that they recommend 
for the Pear a cool and damp soil, adding that if the fruit is 
gritty the soil should be improved and well watered—a 
recommendation also given by Palladius. Diophanes, who 
wrote before Columella, Varro, and Pliny, for they quote 
from his writings, directs that Pears must be planted in a 
mild situation; that to promote fruitfulness some of the 
main roots should be split, and the fissure kept open by a 
wooden wedge ; and that if languid they should be manured 
with the refuse of the wine-press. The Eomans had tlieir 
Mr. Eivers, or advocate for dwarf Pears, for Tarentinus 
directs them to be grafted on the Quince (Malum cydonia). 
We might enlarge our extracts demonstrating that they knew 
how to propagate the Pear by cuttings, a lost art, but 
recently said to be re-discovered ; however, we have quoted 
enough to justify our statement, and will at once proceed to 
examine what our earliest English herbal writer, Dr. Turner, 
says about this fruit tree. 
In the second part of his “ Complete Herbal,” published 
in 1562, he remarks, “ We have many kinds of garden Pears 
with us in England, and some kinds better than ever I saw 
in Germany for wholesomeness ; and some in Germany more 
pleasant and greater than ever I saw in England. I have 
read in no old writer so many kinds of Pears as I read of in 
Pliny, whereof I will show certain Latin names, and compare 
them with our English Pears and Dutch Pears as well as I 
can. Pyra superba—that is to say, Proud Pears, are little, 
and soonest ripe; and these are called in Cambridge, Mid¬ 
summer Pears. Falerna pyra have their name, saith Pliny 
No. 1934.— Vol. LXXIII., Old Series. 
