168 



VALUABLE NEW NATIVE FRUITS. 



bearer. The specimens I send you are not 

 picked ones, but a fair average sample. 

 No trees of this pear have yet been propa- 

 gated for sale, I have a few growing well 

 on quince stock, but they have not yet 

 fruited. Very respectfully, your friend, 

 " Elwood Harvey. 

 " Chaddsford, Pa., Sept. 4, 1848." 



II. THE SUMMER BELLEFLEUR* APPLE. 



A capital new summer apple of the first 

 quality, ripening from the middle of Au- 

 gust to the middle of September. 

 It was raised by Mr. John R. Com- 

 STOCK, a large orchardist of Wash- 

 ington, Dutchess county, N. Y., from 

 a kernel of that favorite old New- 

 York apple — the Esopus Spitzerv- 

 bjirgh. Six seeds of that variety 

 were planted by Mr. C, but this is 

 the only fine new sort produced. It 

 has borne now four years, producing 

 good and regular crops every year. 

 The tree is a remarkably strong, 

 upright grower in the nursery, and 

 forms a fine spreading head in the 

 orchard. 



The fruit bears considerable re- 

 semblance, in form and colour, to 

 the Yellow Bellefleur, but the flavor 

 more nearly resembles that of its pa- 

 rent, though the flesh is more tender 

 than that of the Spitzenburgh. It is deci- 

 dedly superior in flavor to the Porter or 

 the Williams^ Favorite, or any summer ap- 

 ple of its season, and ripens before either 

 of these popular autumn apples. Its hand- 

 some appearance, fine quality, and most 

 excellent habit of bearing and growth, will 

 undoubtedly soon bring it into popular 



* Those of our readers who prefer the popular mode of 

 pronunciafion, may call ihis Bellflower, though Bellefleur is 

 the correct orthography for this class of apples. 



favor as a first rate summer apple, 

 both for the orchard and garden.* As a 

 market fruit, it will prove extremely valua- 

 ble. 



Fruit rather above medium size, round- 

 ish-oblong, slightly conical, narrowing more 

 to the eye than to the stalk, and having 

 two or three obscure ribs. Skin smooth, 

 fair, clear yellow, deepening from lemon to 

 a golden colour, with rarely a faint orange 

 blush on one side or the top, and a very 

 few scattered greenish dots. Stalk an inch 



Fig. ^1 .—Summer Bellefleur. 



long, stout at the lower end, and planted 

 in a shallow, flattened cavity. Calyx closed, 

 but with small reflexed segments, set in a 

 smooth, but slightly five-sided basin. Core 

 of moderate size, hollow, with small seeds. 

 Flesh white, fine grained and tender, with 

 an excellent, rich, sub-acid flavor of the 

 first quality. 



* Mr. CoMsTocK has, we believe, propagated trees of this 

 variety for sale. 



