PLATE LIII. 
5. AUTUMN BERGAMOT. 
[Syn : Common Bergamot; Bergamot ; English Bergamot; York Bergamot 7 \ 
It has been stated by Switzer, and by some subsequent writer evidently on his authority, 
that the Autumn Bergamot “has been an inhabitant of our island ever since the time that Julius 
Caesar conquered it. Possibly it was the Assyrian Pear of Virgil— quod a Syria translata ftiisset — 
say some commentators, and was as may be deduced from them, part of the furniture of the once 
famous and celebrated Gardens of Alcinous.” This can only be conjecture unsupported by any well 
founded evidence, and is therefore extremely improbable. It is rather singular, however, that 
Switzer is the first English author who mentions it. It is not noticed in the lists of Rea, Worledge 
or Evelyn, nor yet in the very comprehensive list of Leonard Meager, of the fruits which were 
cultivated in the London Nurseries in 1688. Nor is it even mentioned by Ralph Austin, 
Parkinson, nor William Lawson, nor indeed by any author prior to Switzer himself. Parkinson 
speaks of the Winter Bergamot as one “ of two or three sorts, being all of them small fruits, 
somewhat greener on the outside than the summer kinds ; all of them very delicate and good in 
their due time ; so some will not be fit to be eaten when others are well nigh spent, many of them 
outlasting another by a month or more.” Of the Autumn Bergamot, however, there is no record. 
Lindley figures this well-known pear in Plate 120. 
Description. —Fruit: small, two inches and a half wide, and the same in depth ; roundish 
and somewhat depressed. Skin : yellowish green, with dull brown on the side next the sun, and 
covered all over with rough grey russety specks. Eye: small and open, set in a shallow basin. 
Stalk : half an inch long, stout, inserted in a wide, round, and even cavity. Flesh : greenish white 
slightly gritty at the core, but otherwise tender, melting, juicy, and richly flavoured. 
An old dessert pear of the first quality, ripe in October. 
The tree is a vigorous grower and hardy. It forms a handsome standard, and bears 
abundantly. It succeeds well either on the pear or quince stock. 
