Pear. The pear (Pyrus communis), a member of the Pomaceæ, a sub-order of Rosaceæ, is a tree very largely cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which contests with that of the peach the first place in the list of the British Pomona, and vastly exceeds it in endurance. The pear is a native of Europe and the more temperate parts of Asia, and is still found wild in Britain, but in that state is of lesser girth and stature, with thorny branches and small harsh fruit, and jagged and sometimes pinnate leaves. Under cultivation the tree attains a height of 40 to 60 feet, with a trunk of a yard or even more in diameter, while the thorns disappear, though in some kinds they linger for years after grafting; the leaves are simple, ovate, serrate, or crenate, and sometimes almost entire, glabrous on the upper surface, sometimes tomentose on the under side while young; the flowers are in corymbs of five to eight or nine or even more, each bloom having five petals, generally white, though in some varieties tonched or striped with pink, differing also in size and curve according to variety. The stamens are numerous, and the styles distinct, generally five in number and enclosed within the calyx-tube. With the growth of the fruit the ovaries become united, and form what is called the core, consisting usually of five cells, and each cell has one or two seeds or pips, which in many of the best kinds are imperfect. The fleshy mass which is formed around these constitutes what we call the fruit, differing greatly in form, size, and substance, according to variety, health, climate, and other influences. But the normal form of the pear, when we use the word as one of description, is cylindrical, long, and tapering from the stalk to the part just above the eye, where the diameter is greatest.
The pear-tree is grown upon divers stocks, as well as in many shapes and manners, by English gardeners. (1) As to stock—which partly governs other treatment—gardeners use either pear or quince, (a) the pear (which is called the free stock) being raised for that purpose from seed or otherwise, and grafted when strong enough, or budded, with the sort required. This is the way to obtain large trees, lusty and enduring, but loth to give fruit until they have found long experience. Infecunda quidem, sed letæ et fortia surgunt. Whence the old distich—'The man who plants pears is a-planting for his heirs.' This has told much against the liberal stock, but in common with the race of proverbs is exaggerative. (b) The quince-stock, shallow-rooted, less vigorous in habit, and of briefer date. Upon this stock the pear, when congenial to it, begins to fruit even in the second year from working, gives larger, more beautiful, and sometimes better produce than it could afford upon its closer kindred, but does not grow to the bulk or stature which nature intended for it. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that the tree so wrought is cut short of life, unless of a nature that spurns the union, as some of the finest pears have always done. Other pears, indeed the great majority, thrive upon the quince for from ten to twenty years; and some kinds there are which show every sign as yet of a life as long and almost as large as they could have attained without transmigration. (c) Other stocks whereupon the pear will grow are the hawthorn, the Sorbus, the Cydonia japonica, and several other members of the pyric race. Some kinds of pear will do well on some of these. But in spite of all local and paradoxical flourish, the stern fact remains that the success is fitful, comparatively brief, and scarcely worth the trouble.
(2) The shape and manner of growth are also manifold. In the northern parts of Great Britain and the bleaker portions of the south the pear—unless it be of an early kind—will not ripen well without the aid of glass or the shelter and warmth of a garden-wall. It is not largely grown under glass as yet, and for many good reasons, though very fine specimens are thus obtained. But as a wall-tree it is to be found in almost all fruit-gardens, and much of the finest fruit is thus produced. There are four modes of training now chiefly in vogue—viz. the old horizontal, the fan-shaped, the rectangular fork (with from two to twenty prongs), and the cordon, diagonal or horizontal, single, double, or treble, &c., and sometimes tortured into spirals. But, wherever the pear will ripen without the absorbed and reflected heat of a wall, the simplest and cheapest form of growth is that which our nurserymen call the dwarf pyramidal—more correctly termed the conical—or, with some few varieties which spurn that form, the less compact outline of the bush. Some diligence is needed at least twice a year to keep any of these in discipline.
(3) The varieties of pears are almost countless, as are those of apples, and nine-tenths are unworthy of the census. If this was so in the time of Virgil, we must not be surprised at the catalogue now. No year, however barren, lacks new kinds on paper, which are to supersede all previous issue. But the historical fact survives that pears were as well worth eating in the days of our ancestors as they are now, and that not more than some half-dozen of the hundreds introduced within the last forty years have earned their too obsequious welcome. And of this select band there are only three that deserve to be a joy for ever—Doyenne du Comice (perhaps the crown and the criterion); Beurré superfin, a noble satisfaction; and Joséphine de Malines, an exquisite refinement. Also there is a grand pear of English origin, the Pitmaston Duchess, not of the finest quality, but good enough to be allowed to plead its beauty. To these the gardener will add, according to liking or locality, the best of the older kinds that have stood the test of generations, such as Jargonelle, Williams' Bon Chrétien, Louise Bonne, Marie Louise, Knight's Monarch, and Fondante d'Automne, and some ten or twelve others, preferring merit to magnitude, and bearing in mind the simple truth, though a stumbling-block to the million, that all fruit is better without wall or glass, when it can be so brought to perfection.
[In the United States the favourite variety is the Bartlett, which is exported in large quantities. The Seckel is a smaller fruit, but of a more delicate flavour. The states in which the pear is chiefly grown are California, Georgia, and Florida.]
See Hogg's Fruit Manual; The Orchardist, by John Scott; the Report of Pear Conference at Chiswick; and the Pomological Dictionary of André Leroy.