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Choke Pear (plant)
A choke pear or chocky-pear is an astringent fruit. The term is used for the fruit of any variety of pear which has an astringent taste and is difficult to swallow. Varieties One variety of choke pear is poire d'Angoisse, a variety of pear that was grown in Angoisse, a commune in the Arrondissement of Nontron in Dordogne, France, in the Middle Ages, which was hard, bad tasting, and almost impossible to eat raw. In the words of L'Académie française, the pear is "''si âpre et si revèche au goût qu'on a de la peine à l'avaler''" ("so harsh and crabbed of taste that one can only with difficulty swallow it"). These qualities, and the common meaning of ''angoisse'' in French language ("anguish") apparently originated the French idiom ''avaler des poires d'angoisse'' ("swallow pears of Angoisse/anguish") meaning "to suffer great displeasures". Possibly because of this idiom, the names "choke pear" and "pear of anguish" have been used for a gagging device allegedly used i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astringent
An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin ''adstringere'', which means "to bind fast". Calamine lotion, witch hazel, and yerba mansa, a Californian plant, are astringents. Astringency, the dry, puckering or numbing mouthfeel caused by the tannins in unripe fruits, lets the fruit mature by deterring eating. Ripe fruits and fruit parts including blackthorn (sloe berries), '' Aronia'' chokeberry, chokecherry, bird cherry, rhubarb, quince and persimmon fruits (especially those which are unripe), banana skins (or unripe bananas), cashew fruits and acorns are astringent. Citrus fruits, like lemons, are somewhat astringent. Tannins, being a kind of polyphenol, bind salivary proteins and make them precipitate and aggregate, producing a rough, "sandpapery", or dry sensation in the mouth. The tannins in some teas, coffee, and red grape wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot produce mild astri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pear Of Anguish
The pear of anguish, also known as choke pear or mouth pear, is a device of disputed use invented in the early modern period. The mechanism consists of a pear-shaped metal body divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart with a spring or by turning a key. Its proposed functionality as a torture device is to be variously inserted into the mouth, rectum, or vagina, and then expanded to gag or mutilate the victim; its historical use as a torture device is controversial. Some scholars have disputed historical accounts of the pear as being suspiciously implausible. While there exist some examples from the early modern period, some of them open with a spring, and the removable key is there not to open the mechanism, but rather to close it. At least one of the older devices is held closed with a cap at the end, suggesting it could not have been opened after inserting it into an orifice without actively holding it shut. There is no contemporary evidence of such a torture de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pears
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the pomaceous fruit of the same name. Several species of pears are valued for their edible fruit and juices, while others are cultivated as trees. The tree is medium-sized and native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Pear wood is one of the preferred materials in the manufacture of high-quality woodwind instruments and furniture. About 3,000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide, which vary in both shape and taste. The fruit is consumed fresh, canned, as juice, or dried. Etymology The word ''pear'' is probably from Germanic ''pera'' as a loanword of Vulgar Latin ''pira'', the plural of ''pirum'', akin to Greek ''apios'' (from Mycenaean ''ápisos''), of Semitic origin (''pirâ''), meaning "frui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherry
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus '' Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The name 'cherry' also refers to the cherry tree and its wood, and is sometimes applied to almonds and visually similar flowering trees in the genus ''Prunus'', as in "ornamental cherry" or " cherry blossom". Wild cherry may refer to any of the cherry species growing outside cultivation, although ''Prunus avium'' is often referred to specifically by the name "wild cherry" in the British Isles. Botany True cherries ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus'' contains species that are typically called cherries. They are known as true cherries and distinguished by having a single winter bud per axil, by having the flowers in small corymbs or umbels of several together (occasionally solitary, e.g. ''P. serrula''; some species with short racemes, e.g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choke Cherry
''Prunus virginiana'', commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry (also black chokecherry for ''P. virginiana'' var. ''demissa''), is a species of bird cherry (''Prunus'' subgenus ''Padus'') native to North America. Description Chokecherry is a suckering shrub or small tree growing to tall, rarely to and exceptionally with a trunk as thick as . The leaves are oval, long and wide, with a serrated margin. The stems rarely exceed in length. The flowers are produced in racemes long in late spring (well after leaf emergence), eventually growing up to 15 cm. They are across. The fruits (drupes) are about in diameter, range in color from bright red to black, and possess a very astringent taste, being both somewhat sour and somewhat bitter. They get darker and marginally sweeter as they ripen. They each contain a large stone. Chemistry Chokecherries are very high in antioxidant pigment compounds, such as anthocyanin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry
Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ..., particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made in parts of South Wales and France, especially Normandy and Duchy of Anjou, Anjou, and in The Commonwealth, Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Production Fruit Perry pears are thought to be descended from wild hybrids, known as ''wildings'', between the cultivated pear ''Pyrus communis'' subsp. ''communis'' and the now-rare wild pear Pyrus pyraster, ''Pyrus communis'' subsp. ''pyraster''. The cultivated pear ''P. communis'' was brought to northern Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Thomas Riley
Henry Thomas Riley (June 1816 – 14 April 1878) was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary. Life Born in June 1816, he was only son of Henry Riley of Southwark, an ironmonger. He was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and at Charterhouse School (1832–4). He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, but at the end of his first term migrated to Clare College where he was admitted on 17 December 1834, and elected a scholar on 24 January 1835. In 1838 he obtained a Latin essay prize. He graduated B.A. in 1840 and M.A. in 1859, after which he moved to Corpus Christi College. On 16 June 1870 he was incorporated at Exeter College, Oxford. Riley was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 23 November 1847, but early in life he began hack work for booksellers to make a living, by editing and translation. On the creation of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (by royal charter in April 1869), Riley was engaged as an additional inspector for England, and given the task ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bostock (physician)
John Bostock, Jr. FRS (baptised 29 June 1773, died 6 August 1846) was an English physician, scientist and geologist from Liverpool. Life Bostock was a son of Dr. John Bostock, Sr. He spent some time at New College at Hackney where he attended Joseph Priestley's lectures on chemistry and natural philosophy, before graduating in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practising medicine in Liverpool. He moved to London in 1817 where he concentrated on general science. In 1819, Bostock was first to accurately describe hay fever as a disease that affected the upper respiratory tract. He lectured on chemistry at Guy's Hospital and was President of the Geological Society of London in 1826 when that body was granted a Royal Charter and Vice President of the Royal Society in 1832. Bostock died of cholera in 1846; He is buried in the Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Works Bostock was one of the first chemical pathologists. He was the first to realise the relationship between the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History (Pliny)
The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work's title, its subject area is not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of Pliny the Elder#Death, his death during the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger. The work is divided into 37 books, organised into 10 volumes. These cover topics including astronomy, mathematic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliny The Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' Naturalis Historia'' (''Natural History''), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus: Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume work ''Bella Germaniae'' ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant. ''Bella Germaniae'', which began where Aufidius Bassus' ''Libri Belli Germanici'' ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus—who many scholars agree had never travelled in Germania—used ''Bella Germa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the '' Organisation internationale de la Francopho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term "fruit" als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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