THE ORCHARD BEAUTIFUL. 273 



to show their buds in the spring, while Martin sec, Madame Loriol de 

 Barny, and Herbin, are slow to shed their leafy clothing in the 

 autumn. Bonne d'Ezee and Doyenne dAlen^on are the earliest to 

 flower, and Alexandrine, Douillard, Sylvange, and Nouvelle Fulvie pro- 

 tect their clusters of flowers with sheltering rosettes of leaves as soon 

 as they open. If we wish for Pear trees with double flowers we have 

 Comte Lelieur and Betirre de Naghin, with their regular outline, or the 

 double-flowered Bergamotte and Calebasse Oberdieck, with their droop- 

 ing petals. Without being able to compete with the coloured barks 

 of the Birch, the scarlet Dogberry, or the veined Maple, we may be 

 content with the ash-coloured bark of the Best Dubost, the ochrey 

 Passe Colmar, the violet Beurre Giffard, the purple Doyenne Flon 

 aine, the dark brown Bon Chretien de Bruxelles, and the bright- 

 barked Fondante Thirriot. We have beauty of stem in Van Mons, 

 Deux-Sceurs, Angelique Leclerc, Beurre Lebrun, and others, the last 

 having a stem which looks as if spotted with carmine. The study of 

 local fruits has provided us with the Poirier de Fosse, which in the 

 department of the Aube is as large and tall as an Oak. A group of 

 some of these sorts in either park or garden would give us as much 

 pleasure as any isolated tree or clump of trees." 



And here we may also say a word for some of the wild Pears 

 of Europe, particularly the little-known species of the region of the 



Danube and Southern Russia. Many of these 

 Wild Pears. eastern kinds are distinct and beautiful in growth 



and appearance, and their leaves take on the 

 richest autumn colouring, in shades of purple, crimson, orange, and 

 gold, which would give fine effect in the wild garden even if valueless 

 in other ways. The autumn colour of some of our orchard Pears is 

 also beautiful, particularly in some soils ; an orchard of Pears is finer 

 in this way than any of our other fruits. 



And apart from these are the Pears grown for perry, an interest- 

 ing group of which we have no knowledge in the home counties, 

 though in some parts of the west they are grown. So that on the 

 whole there is no lack of fine things to go to the forming of what 

 would prove a charming addition to many a country seat a Pear 

 orchard with the trees all in their natural forms. 



Fruit trees grown in any way are fair to see in the time of flower 

 and fruit, but our orchard must be in turf if we are to have the best 



expression of its beauty. In fruit gardens where 



Staking orchard the whole surface is cultivated with small fruits 



trees. below and taller trees overhead we may get as 



good, or, it may be, better fruit, but we miss the 

 finer light and shade and verdure of the orchard in turf, the pretty 

 incidents of the ground, and the animal life among the trees in spring, 



S 



