THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



AUGUST, 1848. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Descinptions and Engravings of Select Varieties of 

 Pears. By the Editor. 



Continuing our descriptions of pears, we present our pomo- 

 logical friends with an account of six American varieties, 

 two of them now for the first time fully described and figured. 

 These are the Oliver's Russet and ShurtlefTs Seedling: both 

 fine fruits, especially the former, which has now been before 

 us for three or four years, while the latter is of recent intro- 

 duction to notice. Agreeably to our remarks, some time 

 since, Ave shall, as far as possible, keep the American varie- 

 ties together, and consequently descriptions of some fine new 

 foreign pears are deferred until another opportunity. 



97. Oliver's Russet. 



Four or five years since, some fine specimens of a new 

 seedling pear were shown before the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, by Mr. Oliver, of Lynn, in whose garden the 

 tree that produced them was found growing, and they were 

 pronounced by the committee, " nearly equal to the Seckel." 

 This was in the fall of 1843. In our volume for 1844, (X. 

 p. 212,) we gave a brief description of this pear, after having 

 tried the fruit ourselves. Last year, Mr. Oliver again exhib- 

 ited some fine specimens of this variety, and the committee 

 stated that " it sustains its previous reputation." This opin- 

 ion, we are happy to say, accords with our own views of this 

 new pear, {fig, 32.) It has not quite such an abundant 



VOL. XIV. — NO. VIII. 29 



