MEDLAR  , Mespilus germanica, a

tree of the tribe Pomeae of the order Rosaceae, closely allied to the genus Pyrus, in which it is sometimes included; it is a native of European woods, &c., from Holland southwards, and of western Asia . It occurs in hedges, &c., in middle and south England, as a small, mach branched, deciduous, spinous tree, but is not indigenous . The medlar was well known to the ancients . Pickering (Chron . Hist . Pl. p . 2o1) identifies it with a tree mentioned in a Siao-ya ode (She-King, ii . I, 2), 827 B.C . It is the µeorrlkri of Theophrastus and Mespilus of Pliny . The Latin mespilus or mespilum became in Old French mesle or medle, "the fruit," meslier, medlier, "the tree." The modern French nefle is from a corruption nespilum of the Latin . The German Mispel preserves the original more closely . The well-known fruit is globular, but depressed above, with leafy persistent sepals, and contains stones of a hemispherical shape .

It is not

fit to eat until it begins to decay and becomes• " bletted," when it has an agreeable acid and somewhat astringent flavour . Several varieties are known in cultivation . The large Dutch medlar, which is very widely cultivated; has a naturally crooked growth; the large, much-flattened fruit is inferior in quality to the Nottingham, which is a tree of upright habit with fruits of about 1 in. diameter, superior to any other variety . There is also a stoneless variety with still smaller fruits, but the quality is not so good . The medlar is propagated by budding or grafting upon the white-thorn, which is most suitable if the soil is dry and sandy, or on the quince if the soil is moist; the pear stock also succeeds well on ordinary soils . It produces the best fruit in rich, loamy, somewhat moist ground . The tree may be grown as a standard, and chiefly requires pruning to prevent the branches from rubbing each other . The fruit should be gathered in November, on a dry day, and laid out upon shelves . It becomes " bletted and fit for use in two or three weeks . The Japanese medlar is Eriobotrya japonica (see LOQUAT), a genus of the same tribe of Rosaceae . M$DOC, a district in France adjoining the left bank of the Gironde from Blanquefort (N. of Bordeaux) to the mouth of the Gironde . Its length is about 50 m., its breadth averages supplies the tentacles; the subumbral ring supplies the velum. between 6 and 7 m .

It is. formed by a number of

low hills, which separate the Landes from the Gironde, and is traversed only by small streams; the Gironde itself is muddy, and often enveloped in fog, and the region as a whole is far from picturesque . Large areas of its soil are occupied by vineyards, the products of which form the finest growths of Bordeaux .