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 become 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 (Pyrus 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 absolutely unfit to eat. Pears are chiefly used in desserts; and one or two of the kinds are stewed with sugar, baked, or preserved in syrup.
The fermented juice of pears is called perry, and is prepared nearly in the same manner as that of apples ([162]) is for cider. The greatest quantities of perry are made in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. The Squash, the Oldfield, and the Barland perry are esteemed the best. Many of the dealers in Champaigne wine are said to use perry in the adulteration of it; and, indeed, really good perry is little inferior, either in flavour or quality, to Champaigne.
Of the wood of the pear-tree, which is light, smooth, compact, and of yellowish colour, carpenters' and joiners' tools are usually made, as well as the common kinds of flat rulers, and measuring scales. It is also used for picture frames that are to be stained black. The leaves impart a yellow dye, and are sometimes employed to communicate a green colour to blue cloth.
162. The APPLE, in all its numerous varieties, has been derived from the Crab-tree (Pyrus malus), which grows wild in almost every thicket, and in hedges of all parts of the kingdom.
The uses of apples are very extensive, and even the crab-tree is not without its use. The fruit is indeed small, and bad to the taste; but its fermented juice, which is called verjuice, is sometimes employed in cookery, occasionally in medicine, and frequently by wax-chandlers, for the purifying of wax. Dr. Withering conceives that, with a proper addition of sugar, a grateful liquor might be made from the juice of crabs, little inferior to hock. Hogs and deer are particularly partial to this fruit. The wood is tolerably hard, and, when made into the cogs of wheels, acquires a polish, and is very durable.