Notes and Gleanings. 3^0 



high, with fine bright leaves and bark, and upriglit growth, reminding one of a 

 young Cumbrian in vigor. Its fruit was large, handsome, and good. I was so 

 taken with the seedling that I at once adopted it, and called it the Rivers's Louise 

 Bonne. It must have further trial. 



Another tree of the same group was so loaded with fruit as to make it pendu- 

 lous, and its branches are at this time thronged with blossom spurs. The fruit 

 was like the parent sort, not quite so large, but melting and excellent. Several 

 others of the Louise Bonne seedlings bore well, and have been distinguished by 

 letters, so as to be recognized ; some few years must elapse before their quali- 

 ties are fully known. Among this group of trees are seedlings from Winter 

 Nelis and many other good kinds, all chance seedlings, by which I mean from 

 naturally fertilized flowers ; all bore good crops, but none were superior to their 

 parents. M. Carriere, in " Revue Horticole," calls such pears '■'•fruits dii ha- 

 sard^'' and adds that " tin bon hasard est preferable a tine Dtauvaise certitude^ 

 Judging from such chance pears as Doyenne du Comice, Josephine de Malines, 

 and others, chance or " hazard " has done much for pears, but we have still to 

 learn the results of careful crossing. In the group above described is one seed- 

 ling from Knight's Monarch, which, till last October, was a most interesting 

 tree ; its shoots were smooth and vigorous, and it seemed as if it would prove 

 an improved Monarch. Alas for hope ! It bore a full crop, which ripened on 

 the tree in October, and was like an inferior Swan's Egg, one of the reputed 

 parents of the Monarch. In looking over numerous seedling pears, from twenty 

 to twenty-five years old, I was struck with the adherence to race of the Beurre 

 d'Aremberg. There are here many seedlings from this fine winter pear, which 

 have borne fruit, and good fruit, but not one later or larger than the parent sort. 

 I hoped to obtain one as large as a Catillac, which is an old and unrivalled/)'?^//' 

 du hasard, but I have hitherto been disappointed ; it may come, as may a Jose- 

 phine de Malines, of the Catillac size, and with its present fine quality. 



In raising seedling pears, hope and disappointment, and disappointment and 

 hope, run a race, which to the observant horticulturist is of never-failing 

 interest — an epitome of life; but I can safely recommend the pursuit, for it 

 keeps the mind in a pleasant state of unrest, hoping to the end, and smiling at 

 disappointment. Thos. Rivers, in Gardener''s Chronicle. 



New Fruits and Vegetables. — Good fruits and good vegetables are 

 fully as important as good flowers — if not, indeed, more so ; hence, we are not 

 disposed to join in the chorus of complaint which is often heard as to the over- 

 whelming supply of novelties, or supposed novelties, by which, it is affirmed, the 

 unwary are not unfrequently taken in and mulcted. Good old things are not, 

 indeed, to be lightly cast aside ; they should be held firmly till something better 

 is safe in hand ; but in these progressive days there is, and must be, a striving 

 everywhere for improvement, and it is tlie efforts thus made towards progression 

 — not always, it may be true, crowned with success — v/hich give us th(; flood of 

 novelties complained of. From amongst these, however, it is indeed odd if 

 some real gain is not annually secured, — a mere gradation it maybe in most 

 cases, as to size, quality, or producdveness, but here and there showing that an 



