The Description.

The manured Medlar tree is not great, the body whereof is writhed, the boughs hard, not easy to be broken: the leaves be longer, yet narrower than those of the apple tree, dark green above, and somewhat whiter and hairy below: the flowers are white and great, having five leaves apiece: the fruit is small, round, and hath a broad compassed navel or crown at the top: the pulp or meat is at the first white, and so harsh or choking, that it cannot be eaten before it become soft; in which are contained five seeds or stones, which be flat and hard.

2. There is another which differeth from the last described, in that the leaves are longer and narrower, the stock hath no prickles upon it: the fruit also is larger and better tasted: in other respects it is like to the last described. This is the Mespilus fructu prestantiore of Tragus, and Mespilus domestica of Lobel.

3. The Neapolitan Medlar tree groweth to the height and greatness of an Apple tree, having many tough and hard boughs or branches, set with sharp thorns like the Whitethorn, or Hawthorn: the leaves are very much cut or jagged like the Hawthorn leaves, but greater, and more like Smallage or Parsley, which leaves before they fall from the tree do wax red: among these leaves come forth great tufts of flowers of a pale herby colour: which being past, there succeed small long fruit, lesser than the smallest Medlar, which at the first are hard, and green of colour, but when they be ripe, they are both soft and red, of a sweet and pleasant taste: wherein is contained three small hard stones, as in the former, which be the kernels or seeds thereof.

4. There is a dwarf kind of Medlar growing naturally upon the Alps, and hills of Narbonne, and on the rocks of Mount Baldus nigh Verona, which hath been by some of the best learned esteemed for a kind of Medlar: others, whose judgements cannot stand with truth or probability, have supposed it to be Euonymus, of the Alps: this dwarf Medlar groweth like a small hedge tree, of four or five cubits high, bearing many small twiggy wands or crops, beset with many slender leaves green above, and of a sky colour underneath, in show like to a dwarf Apple tree, but the fruit is very like the Haw, or fruit of the Whitethorn, and of a red colour. The flowers come forth in the spring three or four together, hollow, and of an herby colour, it grows in divers places of the Alps: it is the Chamæmespilum of the Adversaria and the Chamæmespilus gesneri, of Clusius.

The Place.

The Medlar trees do grow in orchards, and oftentimes in hedges among Briers and Brambles; being grafted in a Whitethorn it prospereth wonderful well, and bringeth forth fruit twice or thrice bigger than those that are not grafted at all, almost as great as little apples: we have divers sorts of them in our orchards.

The Time.

It is very late before Medlars be ripe, which is in the end of October, but the flowers come forth timely enough.

The Names.

The first is called in Greek by Theophrastus Mespile, in Latin, Mespilus: in High Dutch, Nespelbaum: in Low Dutch, Mispelboome: in French, Nefflier: in English, Medlar tree.

The apple or fruit is named in Greek, Mespilon: in Latin, Mespilum: in High Dutch, Nespel, in Low Dutch, Mispele: in Italian, Nespolo: in French, Neffle: in Spanish, Nesperas: in English, Medlar.

Dioscorides affirmeth, that this Medlar tree is called Epimelis, and of divers, Sitanion: Galen also in his book Of the Faculties of Simple Medicines nameth this Epimelis, which is called, as he saith, by the country men in Italy, Unedo, and groweth plentifully in Calabria; for under the name of Mespilus, or Medlar tree, he meaneth no other than Tricoccus, which is also named Aronia.

The Neapolitans' Medlar tree is called by Galen Epimelis.

The fruit hereof is called Tricoccos, of the three grains or stones that it hath: they of Naples call it Azarolo: and we may name it in English, three grain Medlar, or Neapolitan Medlar, or Medlar of Naples.

The Temperature.

The Medlars are cold, dry, and astringent; the leaves are of the same nature: the dwarf Medlar is dry, sharp, and astringent.

The Virtues.

A. Medlars do stop the belly, especially when they be green and hard, for after that they have been kept a while, so that they become soft and tender, they do not bind or stop so much, but are then more fit to be eaten.

B. The fruit of the three grain Medlar, is eaten both raw and boiled, and is more wholesome for the stomach.

C. These Medlars be oftentimes preserved with sugar or honey: and being so prepared they are pleasant and delightful to the taste.

D. Moreover, they are singular good for women with child: for they strengthen the stomach, and stay the loathsomeness thereof.

E. The stones or kernels of the medlars, made into powder and drunk, do break the stone, expel gravel, and procure urine.