550 



NEW PEARS AND PEAR CULTURE. 



much like a middle sized Passe Colmar. 

 The tree grows freely on the quince, but 

 does not bear till three or four years old. 

 This, as is now well known, was raised 

 by chance, by the late Major Esperen, of 

 Malines. 



Belle A'pres Noel. A chance pear, raised 

 by the same gentleman. It ripened in 

 January. A moderate sized, good, melt- 

 ing pear, i. e., a first rate pear. 

 Bergamotte d' Esperen. Ripened in March. 

 Size third rate. Bergamot shaped. Fla- 

 vor inferior. This pear, I have since learn- 

 ed, varies much in character, and requires 

 a warm rich soil, and a warm season ; 

 when it is first rate, and keeps till April 

 and May. 



Beurre Bretounean, (Esperen's.) I have 

 real pleasure in telling you all I know 

 about this truly valuable pear. I have two 

 specimens only ; in shape and appearance 

 they are much like Beurre Diel, and in 

 size about equal to a second or third sized 

 pear of that sort ; so that it is of a good 

 size, although not No. 1. Technically, it 

 is oval, or slightly turbinated. But the 

 terms in general use, in my opinion, fail 

 to give a correct idea of the shape of any 

 pear, unless its characters are very strongly 

 marked. On looking at my specimens to- 

 day, kept on a shelf in a dry airy cellar, 

 each wrapped in three or four folds of a 

 piece of newspaper, I found them fine, and 

 likely, in all appearance, to keep a month 

 or six weeks longer. But as I was writing 

 you this pear gossip, and felt anxious to 

 know something about a pear so handsome, 

 (colour yellow, thickly — very thickly dotted 

 with russet spots,) I could not help scoop- 

 ing out a taster. To my great delight, I 

 found it a genuine melting pear, — rich, 

 sugary and soft, approaching only to ripe- 

 ness. I should calculate that it will be 

 fully ripe about the middle of next month. 



Now when I looked round my fruit shelves, 

 and found this the only melting pear left, 

 (for pears in this country, in spite of the 

 cloudy, cool, unripening summer of 1848, 

 nearly all ripened prematurely, — Beurre 

 de Ranee in January ; Ne Plus Meuris in 

 March, instead of April, as usual, etc. etc.,) 

 that this new variety should even surpass 

 the description I had with it. The tree is 

 remarkably hardy, and very thorny; it 

 does not grow when grafted on the quince, 

 unless " double-worked," and then but 

 slowly, at least at present ; but it is so 

 new that one can scarcely describe what 

 it will do. I have no doubt that, in due 

 time, we shall find these " refractory" pears, 

 which require double-working to make 

 them take kindly to the quince, will also 

 require to have a proper kind of pear on 

 which to double-work them. 



Susette de Bavay, (Esperen,) of which I 

 have no specimens, I have every reason to 

 believe, will prove a late pear, equally as 

 valuable as the preceding. The readers of 

 the Horticulturist should know ihat^Glout 

 Morceau has been sent out for this pear; it 

 was, I think, in 1845, that a well known 

 nurseryman in Belgium, professed to have 

 all the pears raised by the late Major Es- 

 peren to dispose of. I received from him 

 the following : Susette de Bavay, Beurre 

 Lombard, and Beurre d'Esperen, all of 

 which proved to be Glout Morceau. The 

 true Susette de Bavay has shoots of a 

 light greenish brown, entirely thornless ; 

 and the tree is so inclined to the pyramidal 

 shape, that it will form a handsome close 

 pyramid, almost without attention. All the 

 above, I understand, Avere raised from seed 

 by chance, i. e., seeds of good pears were 

 sown without any attention to impregna- 

 tion, or going through two or three genera- 

 tions. What a comment thus offers itself 

 on the fanciful theory of Van Mons ; and 



