I have mentioned three Greek and one Roman name, but there are many others; for instance, _pauta_ in Armenian and Georgian; _vatzkor_ in Hungarian; in Slav languages _gruscha_ (Russian), _hrusska_ (Bohemian), _kruska_ (Illyrian). Names similar to the Latin _pyrus_ recur in the Keltic languages; _peir_ in Erse, _per_ in Kymric and Armorican.[1151] I leave philologists to conjecture the Aryan origin of some of these names, and of the German _Birn_; I merely note their number and diversity as an indication of the very ancient existence of the species from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic. The Aryans certainly did not carry pears nor pear pips with them in their wanderings westward; but if they found in Europe a fruit they knew, they would have given it the name or names they were accustomed to use, while other earlier names may have survived in some countries. As an example of the latter case, I may mention two Basque names, _udarea_ and _madaria_,[1152] which have no analogy with any known European or Asiatic name. The Basques being probably the descendants of the conquered Iberians who were driven back to the Pyrenees by the Kelts, the antiquity of their language is very great, and it is clear that their names for the species in question were not derived from Keltic or Latin. The modern area of the pear extending from the north of Persia to the western coast of temperate Europe, principally in mountainous regions, may therefore be considered as prehistoric, and anterior to all cultivation. It must be added, however, that in the north of Europe and in the British Isles an extensive cultivation must have extended and multiplied naturalizations in comparatively modern times which can scarcely be now distinguished. I cannot accept Godron’s hypothesis that the numerous cultivated varieties come from an unknown Asiatic species.[1153] It seems that they may be ranked, as Decaisne says, either with _P. communis_ or _P. nivalis_ of which I am about to speak, taking into account the effect of accidental crossing, of cultivation, and of long-continued selection. Besides, Western Asia has been explored so thoroughly that it is probable it contains no other species than those already described. +Snow Pear+—_Pyrus nivalis_, Jacquin. This variety of pear is cultivated in Austria, in the north of Italy, and in several departments of the east and centre of France. It was named _Pyrus nivalis_ by Jacquin[1154] from the German name _Schneebirne_, given to it because the Austrian peasants eat the fruit when the snow is on the ground. It is called in France _Poirier sauger_, because the under side of the leaves is covered with a white down which makes them like the sage (Fr. _sauge_). Decaisne[1155] considered all the varieties of _P. nivalis_ to be derived from _P. kotschyana_, Boissier,[1156] which grows wild in Asia Minor. The latter in this case should take the name of _nivalis_, which is the older.