476 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



urn size, meltintj and good ; season from January 

 to February ; tree very fertile and vigorous, 3s. 6d. 



Josephine de Malines (Esperen). This is, I be- 

 lieve, a seedling from the Passe Colmar, which it 

 much resembles in habit ; fruit rather smaller than 

 those of Passe Colmar ; green or greenish yellow 

 when ripe, melting and excellent; season from 

 March to May. Like all very late pears, this re- 

 quires a warm and rather light soil when on the 

 pear stock ; it seems to do well on quince, and will 

 doubtless ripen in cold soils, and situations unfa- 

 vorable to it on the pear stock. The parent tree 

 of this variety, when I saw it, formed a beautiful 

 pyramid, 12 feet high, and covered with fruit, 5s. 



Napoleon d'Hiver (Esperen). Fruit large, tur- 

 binated, melting ; season January to February ; tree 

 very robust, hardy, and a great bearer. The pa- 

 rent tree of this variety, apparently some ten or 

 twelve years old. was loaded with fine fruit, 5s. 



Soldat d'Esperen, or Soldat Laboureur (Esperen). 

 Fruit large and turbinated, only half melting, but 

 high flavored and excellent , season from January 

 to February ; tree very robust, and a great bearer. 

 I was much delighted with the beauty of the parent 

 tree of this variety ; it formed a handsome pyra- 

 mid, on which its larsje fruit hung at regular dis- 

 tances, almost as if placed there by the hand of 

 the cultivator, 3s. 6d. 



Orpheline, or Soldat Laboureur of the French, is 

 a totally different pear to the above. It is, in ni}' 

 opinion, a variety of the Beurre d'Aremberg, and 

 has, indeed, been disseminated very largely under 

 that name ; but the Beurre d'Aremberg which I 

 received from the Horticultural Society, some fif- 

 teen years since, although of the same race, seems 

 different. I have paid close attention to these va- 

 rieties these three years past, and find the latter to 

 produce numerous thorns, both in my specinen tree 

 and in all the young trees. The fruit, also, al- 

 though much like the former, and of the same fla- 

 vor, is smaller ; the trees are so dissimilar in habit 

 as to be distinguished by the most casual observer. 

 On the Orpheline or Soldat Laboureur, not a thorn 

 is ever to be seen, and the trees are more robust in 

 their growth ; both succeed admirably on the quince 

 stock. At present I am induced to think them dis- 

 tinct, and to consider the latter as a superior vari- 

 ety, although Mr. Thompson, of the Horticultural 

 Society, is inclined to differ from me. I found, also, 

 in Belgium, two varieties of this pear — one known 

 as Beurre d'Aremberg, or Beurre Desehamps, and 

 the other as Orpheline d'Enghien ; neither of these 

 were the Glout Morceau, known universally in 

 France as Beurre d'Aremberg. 



Susette de Bavay (Esperen). Fruit of medium 

 size, knobby and irregular in shape, something like 

 the Ne plus Meuris ; flesh melting, high flavored 

 and excellent ; season from March to May ; a pear 

 of the highest excellence ; tree very vigorous and 

 very fertile. This variety in particular deserves a 

 place in every collection, 3s. 6d. 



All the above will succeed well in the South of 

 England, and in warm situations in the Midland 

 Counties, as pyramids or espaliers ; but in the 

 North, it will be advisable to give them a south- 

 west or south-east wall. 



Triomphe de Jodoigne. This pear was raised a 



short time since by M. Bouvier (since deceased,) 

 a great pear amateur at Jodoigne, in Belgium i^^it 

 is one of the very largest of our melting pears, as 

 large, or even larger, than the Beurre Diel ; flesh 

 melting and excellent, without the musky flavor 

 peculiar to that varietj' ; season December ; tree 

 astonishingly vigorous and robust, 5s. 



In addition to the foregoing, there are two other 

 varieties of late pears well worthy of attention; 

 they are not exactly new, but are really good va- 

 rieties. 



Beurre gris d'Hiver nouveau. In shape much 

 like the Easter Beurre, and equal to it in .size. This 

 is a most abundant bearer, as a pvramid on the 

 quince, flesh meltins and high flavored, and ripens 

 from the end of December to the end of January, 

 or later. 



Crassane d'Hiver (Brunont or Bruneau). This 

 is far superior to the Winter Crassane of the late 

 Mr. Knight, both in size and flavor, being a melt- 

 ing pear of first rate quality ; it bears freely as a 

 pyramid on the quince, ripening in January and 

 February, and in some seasons will keep till 

 March. 



A few directions for summer pruning pyramidal 

 pear trees will not, perhaps, here be out of place. 

 I gathered some experience during my tour in Bel- 

 gium and France, which I feel happy to impart. I 

 have, in the -'Miniature Fruit Garden," given di- 

 rections to shorten all the shoots of pyramidal 

 pear trees towards the end of summer ; if root 

 pruning is closely attended to, I am still inclined to 

 consider it best to do so ; but if the trees are suf- 

 fered to grow naturally, a modification of the pinch- 

 ing .system of Monsieur Cappe. as given in the Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle, No. 28, 1847, may be followed 

 with advantage. 



To follow this method, close attention must be 

 paid to the trees early in June, and every shoot on 

 the horizontal branches, except the leading shoot 

 on each branch, must be pinched off to within three 

 or four buds of its base, the foreright shoot on each 

 branch must be left to exhaust the tree of its super- 

 I abundant sap. In Belgium, I observed all these 

 foreright shoots on the trees towards the end of Au- 

 -gust, and I was told that they were left to exhaust 

 ^he tree of its sap, and were not removed till the 

 winter pruning, when they were shortened to with- 

 in four or five buds. I am inclined, however, to 

 think that it would be an improvement to shorten 

 them towards the end of August, as the buds would 

 then swell and prepare themselves to form, in the 

 following season, bloom buds. The leading shoot 

 of the tree may also then be shortened ; this gives 

 pyramidal trees a dressed and cultivated appear- 

 ance, and exposes the fruit to the full influence of 

 the sun and air. I must say, however, that I pre- 

 fer root pruning to pruning of the shoots, and the 

 trees of Monsieur Cappe, in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 at Paris, confirmed me in this opinion ; these trees 

 are not, strictly speaking, pyramidal trees ; they 

 are rather conical trees, with very broad bases, re- 

 quiring much more room than pyramids. No trees 

 can be more beautiful as to the equal distribution 

 of their branches, but they are sadly lacking in a 

 tendency to fruitfulness. 1 think I write the truth 

 when I say, that in this fruitful season not more 



