A small and early variety of pear. Also a variety of plum.
1641. Suckling, Ballad on Wedding, Wks. (1709), 31. Streaks of red were mingled there, Such as are on a Katherine Pear, The Side that’s next the Sun.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 233. Catalogue of … excellent Fruit Trees, Plums … Damasq, Violet, Date, Catherine.
1720. Gay, Pastorals, iii. Catherine pears adorn my ruddy cheek.
1819. Crabbe, T. of Hall, X. 599. ’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine pear, that brighten’d o’er her cheeks.
