164 Descriptions of Select Varieties of Pears. 



the least claim to the high character ascribed to it. So infe- 

 rior have been the pears, that we have doubted whether we 

 have been cultivating the same pear, so highly praised by 

 Van Mons. And these doubts have been more strongly 

 confirmed, after seeing a single specimen sent to the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, last autumn, from M. Leroy, 

 of Angers. Among the pears were the Le Cure, Beurre 

 d'Anjou, Easter Beurre, &c. ; not any larger, or in any way 

 superior, and in some instances inferior, to the splendid pears 

 exhibited by our own cultivators, at the last annual exhibition 

 of the Society. Yet the Beurre Ranee was a noble fruit, as 

 our engraving of it at once shows. It measured nearly five 

 inches in length, and three and a half in diameter, and 

 weighed nearly a pound. Though prematurely ripened, by 

 the long confinement of the sea voyage, it was the most rich 

 and luscious pear we tasted last season ; rather coarse in its 

 flesh, but very melting, juicy, sugary, and highly perfumed. 



Now can it be possible that the ordinary looking, knurly, 

 hard, almost tasteless pear we cultivate as the Beurre Ranee 

 is the true variety? Can it be possible, that when other 

 foreign pears are produced with us in every respect equal to 

 the reputation they have abroad, that the Beurre Ranee 

 should fall so far short ? Can it be that we have not yet, 

 after a quarter of a century, found out how to cultivate it ? 

 We certainly cannot think so. We are aware we raise this 

 doubt in the face of almost positive evidence that no such 

 mistake can exist ; for it is well known that the Beurre Ranee 

 has been received from innumerable sources in England and 

 on the Continent, and it does not seem that all should prove 

 incorrect. We shall not aver that they are so ; but of one 

 thing we are certain, that no pear worth cultivating has ever 

 been exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety, since its organization, under the name of Beurre Ranee, 

 at all like the specimens received from France. 



The figure of the Beurre Ranee, in the Pomological Mag- 

 azine, corresponds with the specimen we have figured, except 

 in size ; and the habit of the trees is stated to be straggling 

 and pendulous, which also corresponds with those we have 



