January 25, 1672. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDEXEE. 



73 



Loudou. Price from Is. 6d. to 2s. per dozen heads. £60 have 

 beeu given this season for one early acre-. — (rimes.) 



HISTOKY OF THE GLASTONBURY AND 

 BENEDICTINE PEAKS. 



I WISH to make a few more remarlis on the Glastonbury 

 Pear which may help to settle two points. Firstly, Its identity 

 with the Esper'ine appears to bo very doubtful ; and secondly, 

 Mr. Sampson's Benedictine and the Glastonbury Pear are the 

 same. From your editorial remarks I learn the Esperine could 

 not well have been distributed m tliis country before 1850, or, 

 in other words, it was not known to be cultivated in England 

 thirty years ago. There can be no doubt the Glastonbury 

 Pear tree is older, and for twenty years has beeu grown against 

 a garden wall by a resident in the town, who has known the 

 original tree thirty years. When I sent you the fruit in 1865, 

 I ought to have stated the Pear tree was growing at Glaston- 

 bury, and not, as you supposed, at Edgarley from whence I 

 wrote. My first impression was the tree had never been 

 grafted, but now I think otherwise. 



The original Pear tree now promises to bear a heavy crop of 

 fruit ; should it do so I wiU forward some to your office for 

 comparison witVi those grown in a garden, also some of the 

 leaves. The tree stands in a hedge dividing two Apple 

 orchards ; near it are twoJElms more than forty years old, and 

 in the same hedge are several Pear trees, never grafted, and 

 the fruit worthless. I consider they were stocks planted about 

 the same time as the Apple trees, and were intended to be 

 grafted, but only one was done, the Glastonbury Pear. The 

 Apple trees in both orchards are about the same age, certainly 

 not less than forty years. 



When fruit are sent for identification it should be stated 

 whether grown on a standard or against a wall, and the aspect, 

 as exposure to a warm sun greatly adds to the colour of the 

 fruit. The fruit I sent to Mr. Elvers were growni against a 

 wall and highly coloured, much more so than those sent to 

 you in 1865, which were grown on a pyramid. I make the 

 above remark, as you notice a difference between the Bene- 

 dictine, which you say resembles the Brown Beurre, and the 

 Glastonbury Pear ; they may not have been grown under the 

 same conditions. 



Previous to my sending the Pears to Mr. Elvers, some were 

 sent to Mr. Cramb, who named them Brown Beurrfi, and his 

 opinion was also confirmed by some one who saw the fruit. 

 Mr. LoveU, in 1862, obtained grafts either from the tree in the 

 orchard hedge, or from Mr. Chapman, who was the first to 

 bring the Pear into notice, and had then grown it against a 

 wall for many years. In 1865, as already stated, I sent you 

 two Pears which were grown in Mr. Lovell's garden, and as 

 your report was then so favourable (and which I have sent to 

 Mr. Elvers with the Pears), I largely grafted the variety in 

 1866 and 1867, as I wished the Pear to be distributed, and 

 mentioned it to two nurserymen. About that time, or a httle 

 later, Mr. Lovell sent to Edgarley for some of the grafts, which 

 he had promised to Mr. Sampson. I was pleased to give them, 

 as I considered there was a fair chance of the Glastonbury Pear 

 being distributed. Last February Mr. LoveU called my at- 

 tention to an article in the Gardenfrs' Mafia;ine, page 84, and 

 wished me to answer it, as it was very liiely to mislead the 

 public. No doubt that article if not noticed helps to esta- 

 bhsh a new Pear, and to confuse the identity of the Bene- 

 dictine and Glastonbury Pear. The following is the article : — 



" Among new fruit now in course of being distributed, there 

 is another west-of-Englaud Pear named the Benedictine. This 

 is in course of distribution by Mr. Thomas Sampson, Preston 

 Eoad Nurseries, Yeovil. This variety was raised from a cross 

 between Huyshe's Princess of Wales and Van Mons LCon Le- 

 clerc, by Mr. W. LoveU, of Glastonbury. The fruit when ripe 

 has a handsome appearance, and is nicely tinted with red on the 

 side towards the sun ; the flesh is melting, rich, and juicy, the 

 flavour said to be vei-y fine, and with an exquisite aroma. It 

 is a midwinter Pear, in use from November to the end of 

 January. It takes its name from this, that" the garden of 

 Mr. LoveU in which it was fruited adjoins that of the Bene- 

 dictine Monks at Glastonbury. Mr. LoveU has placed the 

 entire stock in the hands of Mr. Sampson for distribution." 



Many grafts and trees I have given away in this neighbour- 

 hood, and should any of your readers wish for grafts I shaU 

 have much pleasure in sending some. There is no reason 

 why the Pear should be caUed Benedictine, and uutU the Pear 



is identified I would suggest that it be caUed the Glaston- 

 bury Pear, a title which at present it has a right to, and is 

 laiown by in the neighbom-hood. The Pear is ripe towards 

 the end of October, and may sometimes last uutU the end of 

 November. — John Albeki Poech, Edgarley, Glastonbury. 



It is always agreeable to see a controversy conducted with 

 good nature : under such feeUngs I venture to inquire into the 

 origin of the Benedictine Pear. I do not know Mr. LoveU. Mr. 

 Sampson I know as an honourable nurseryman who would 

 not knowingly deceive the world. According to what is known 

 of the origin of this Pear it was raised from a cross between 

 Huyshe's Prince of Wales and Van Mons Loon Leclerc, both 

 fine Pears. The former was sent out in 1860, or about that 

 time, as maiden trees on the Pear stock. Such trees would not 

 bear fruit tUl 1864 or 1865 ; the young seedlings would, say, be 

 in a growing state in 1865 or 1866, and, from my long expe- 

 rience, they would not bear fruit till eight years old, or rather 

 ten years old, as it is very rare for a seedUng Pear in this 

 country to bear under that period. Now, according to the 

 lowest calculation, taking eight years, the trees would not beai' 

 tUl 1872. The Benedictine Pear has been under cultivation 

 two or three years — I received my trees in the autumn of 

 1870 — this seems to me to redirce the bearing state of the seed- 

 Ungs to an incredibly short period. I write this merely as an 

 inquirer, having taken your statement (page 58) as a fact. 

 There has been, probably, some mistake as to its origin which 

 may be at once explained. — Thos. Eivebs. 



[Mr-. Porch has been kind enough to send us two large 

 pieces, apparently two large pjTamids, of the Edgarley Found- 

 ling or Glastonbury Pear, by which we are somewhat confirmed 

 in our suspicion that the Edgarley and the Benedictine Pears 

 are distinct sorts, and that by some means two varieties have 

 got together under the same name. In our notes on Benedic- 

 tine we remarked that it " very much resembles Brown Beurrfi 

 in form and colour;" and it is remarkable that, according to 

 Mr. Porch, that careful observer Mr. Cramb should have come 

 to the same independent conclusion. That the doubts we 

 expressed as to the Pear sent to us in 1865 by Mr. Porch, and 

 which we named Edgarley Foundling, is the same as that sent 

 to us last year by Mr. Sampson under the name of Benedictine, 

 are weU founded has some confirmation from the two speci- 

 mens of the tree now sent us. One is much stronger and 

 more robust than the other ; the colour of the shoots is a 

 bright, clear, yet deep reddish brown or mahogany colour, 

 thickly strewed with large distinct clear freckles (Icntkelles as 

 Mr. Elvers caUs them), and the buds prominent. The other 

 is not so thick or robust in growth, the shoots of a greyish 

 ohve colour, freckles small and sparse, and not much lighter 

 than the colour of the wood. We draw no other conclusion 

 from these facts than that they confirm oiur suspicion, and 

 that probably the mahogany-wooded variety is Brown Bem're. 

 We leave others to investigate the matter farther. — ^Ens.] 



COLD PRODUCED BY RADIATION AND 

 EVAPORATION. 



Letters have been received by us so frequently of late com- 

 plaining that the heatiug apparatus employed was not quite 

 sufficient to maintain the required temperatures, that we feel 

 convinced an attention to the means of checking radiation and 

 evaporation from the glass of the stove, greenhouse, conser- 

 vatory, and i^it would be an effective resource. Glass radiates 

 heat verj- rapidly, and during a cloudless night it quickly, and 

 to a very low degree, cools the air in contact with it. Dew is 

 deposited upon the glass, and then heat has to be suppUed for 

 the evaporation of that. Clouds reduce the radiation from the 

 glass of our garden structures, and much more effectively do 

 coverings outside but near the glass. For example, a ther- 

 mometer placed upon a grass plat, exposed to a clear sky, feU 

 to 35° ; but another thermometer, within a few yards of the 

 preceding, but with the radiation of the rays of heat from 

 the grass checked by no other covering than a cambric pocket- 

 handkerchief, dechned no lower than 42'. No difference of 

 result occurs whether the radiating surface be paraUel or per- 

 pendicular to the horizon ; for when the mercury in a ther- 

 mometer, hung against an openly exposed waU, feU to 38°, 

 another thermometer against the same waU, but beneath a web 

 of gauze stretched tightly at a few inches' distance, indicated 

 a temperature of 43°. 



For this reason, sustained as it is by the experience of gar- 



