THE REGENERATION OF FRUITS. 295 



the experiment some years ago, but the cares of an active life 

 prevented me carrying it out fully. 



The most scientific mode of raising new Pears from seeds, is 

 to sow the pips only of such fruit as have had their origin from 

 fertilised blossoms. If the late T. A. Knight had not taken the 

 old Swan's Egg Pear almost constantly into his experiments, so 

 that most of his seedlings have too strong a leaning to it, and had 

 taken such Pears as Glou Morceau, and Old Colraar, or the 

 Winter Xelis, with some large late Pear, and also formed other 

 crosses, with his peculiar tact, we should most probably have had 

 some of the finest Pears in the world. The late John Williams, 

 of Pitmaston, raised new sorts of Pears with great facility by 

 fertilising. Some of these partake of the qualities of both their 

 parents in a remarkable degree ; but he was not careful enough 

 in selecting varieties to a given end, which ought to be raising of 

 hardy large late-keeping Pears. We have October and November 

 Pears without end ; their names are Legion, and serve to create 

 a distaste, rather than a wish, for a collection of Pears. 



To raise new and fine late Pears, a word or two as to the 

 selection of proper kinds as parents, may not be amiss. That 

 fine large late Pear, Leon le Clerc de Laval, reckoned a baking 

 Pear, but which in May and June becomes soft and agreeable, 

 should be crossed with the Winter Nelis, tlie most delicious of 

 all winter Pears. The Easter Beurre, which, although in France 

 the finest of late Pears, is in England generally flat and poor in 

 flavour, may be crossed with the Beurre d'Aremberg, always 

 vinous and racy, or with the Bergamotted'Esperen; the Triomphe 

 de Jodoigne Pear with Josephine de Malines, and so on. There 

 are two methods by which fertilisation may be brought about : 

 one in which chance is to a certain extent trusted to ; this is by 

 training the bearing-boughs of two Peai'- trees on a wall, so that the 

 blossoms are mingled ; or planting two pyramids of the two kinds 

 of Pears selected, in a situation far removed from any others. The 

 certain method is to select a blossoming spur, or rather say a 

 bunch of blossoms, and a day or two before they expand to cut 

 out all but three or four ; watch these narrowly every morning, 

 and the moment the flowers expand (or even before expansion), 

 remove all the anthers, cover the blossoms with a fine piece of 

 muslin, and the following day fertilise the flowers with the pollen 

 of the variety fixed upon to cross mth.. This is done simply by 

 finding some flowers in full bloom with the pollen perfect, and 

 placing them on the blossoms under the muslin cover, closing it 



VOL. IX. X 



