Medlars

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Occurrences

Medlars

Additional Notes

Medlars – Found in the “Of Fruites” segment of the second section of Hariot, these are defined by the OED as a fruit with “a widely gaping apex and persistent calyx lobes.” The OED used Hariot as one of its examples for this term, and suggests that Hariot’s New World medlars – probably the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), a species wholly unrelated to the medlar – were not, in fact, truly medlars, since medlars were a purely Old World plant. [Not particularly pertinent to this text, but the OED also lists this term as slang for female genitalia.] - Matt
Lawson - p. 109 “Persimmon is a Tree, that nagrees well with all Lands and Soils. Their Fruit, when ripe, is nearest our Medlar; if eaten before, draws the Mouth up like a Purse . . . Astingent . . . cleanse foul wound, but causes Pain. The fruit is rotten, when ripe . . . ‘Tis said, that Cortex Peruviensus comes from a Persimmon-Tree that grows in New-Spain. Lawson used the dried bark as one would Cortex Peruvienus. - Dr. Vince Bellis
[NB VJB- In light of the following account of the physiological effects of this ‘medicine’ one wonders what Lawson may have meant by: ‘I have try’d the Drying ot this Bark, to imitate it, which it dies tolerably well, and agrees therewith. It is binding wnough to work the same Effect.” Actually I think Lawson may have been using this material to ‘bind together’ his food and thus reduce diarrhea. - Dr. Vince Bellis
Lepidium meyenii or maca is an herbaceous biennial plant or annual plant (some sources say a perennial plant) native to the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru. It is grown for its fleshy hypocotyl (actually a fused hypocotyl and taproot), which is used as a root vegetable and a medicinal herb. Its Spanish and Quechua names include maca-maca, maino, ayak chichira, and ayak willku. - Dr. Vince Bellis
From Wikipedia: Medlar (Mespilus) is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the subfamily Maloideae of the family Rosaceae. One, Common Medlar Mespilus germanica, is a long-known native of southwest Asia and possibly also southeastern Europe, and the other, Stern's Medlar Mespilus canescens, was recently (1990) discovered in North America. They feature an unusual apple-like fruit, which requires bletting to eat, and was historically very common, though it is now rare. The medlar is native to Iran and has an ancient history of cultivation; it was grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans, beginning in the 2nd century BCE. The medlar was a very popular fruit during the Victorian era; however, it is a fruit which is now rarely appreciated except in certain areas, such as the north of Iran, Macedonia, Bulgaria, the Caucasus, and in northern Greece. - Dr. Vince Bellis
Hariet p.18 “Medlars a kind of verie good fruit, . . . not good untill they be rotten …red as cherries and very sweet . . . lushious sweet” This must refer to persimmon, a fruit that would have been unknown to the English. The key is the reference to their not being “good’ until after they have ‘rotted’. Diosporos virginiana L. Persimmon p. 826 Radford, et al. (1968) ‘Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas’, Chapel Hill. - Dr. Vince Bellis

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