uit.

_Rosalind._

I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a
Medlar; then it will be the earliest fruit in the country,
for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the
right virtue of the Medlar.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (122).

(4) _Mercutio._

Now will he sit under a Medlar tree.
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call Medlars when they laugh alone.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (80).[160:1]

The Medlar is an European tree, but not a native of England; it has,
however, been so long introduced as to be now completely naturalized,
and is admitted into the English flora. It is mentioned in the early
vocabularies, and Chaucer gives it a very prominent place in his
description of a beautiful garden--

"I was aware of the fairest Medler tree
That ever yet in alle my life I sie,
As ful of blossomes as it might be;
Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile
Fro' bough to bough, and as him list, he eet
Here and there of buddes and floweres sweet."

_The Flower and the Leaf_ (240).

And certainly a fine Medlar tree "ful of blossomes" is a handsome
ornament on any lawn. There are few deciduous trees that make better
lawn trees. There is nothing stiff about the growth even from its early
youth; it forms a low, irregular, picturesque tree, excellent for
shade, with very handsome white flowers, followed by the curious fruit;
it will not, however, do well in the North of England or Scotland.

It does not seem to have been a favourite fruit with our forefathers.
Bullein says "the fruite called the Medler is used for a medicine and
not for meate;" and Shakespeare only used the common language of his
time when he described the Medlar as only fit to be eaten when rotten.
Chaucer said just the same--

"That ilke fruyt is ever lenger the wers
Till it be rote in mullok or in stree--
We olde men, I drede, so fare we,
Till we be roten, can we not be rype."

_The Reeves Tale._

And many others writers to the same effect. But, in fact, the Medlar
when fit to be eaten is no more rotten than a ripe Peach, Pear, or
Strawberry, or any other fruit which we do not eat till it has reached a
certain stage of softness. There is a vast difference betw