CULTURE OF THE PEAR, 21 



ened of the present age, will ever be superseded. He was born in Paris, 

 at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and so rapid and brilliant 

 was his career in the acquisition of knoAvledge, that he was received as a 

 member of the Academy of Science, at the early age of twentyeight 

 years. The great number of his works on science, the arts, agriculture, 

 manufactures and navigation, is an honorable monument of the immeasur- 

 able service which he rendered to his own and every other nation, in all 

 the great departments of human industry. 



His invaluable treatise on Fruit Trees was a vast addition to the fund of 

 intelligence, upon that interesting branch of tillage, and was then, and still 

 is, considered indispensable for the acquisition of exact information in 

 relation to the identity and character of most of the fruits which can be 

 successfully cultivated in the temperate zones. The plates presented 

 accurate delineations of many of the fruits, blossoms and fohage ; but they 

 were not colored, which is much to be regretted, for so very necessary 

 is it that they should be, to enable us to identify specimens, that it is found 

 utterly impracticable to do this, in many cases, without the aid of portraits, 

 which are as perfect in color as contour. 



Many new kinds of fruit having been introduced within the period 

 which had elapsed after the publication of Duhamel's work, an enlarged 

 edition became necessary to meet the demands of the age ; and Thouin, a 

 member of the Institute, and Professor of Culture, in the Museum of 

 Natural History, employed A. Poiteau and P. Turpin, to perform the 

 difficult and laborious duly of revision. Those gentlemen were eminently 

 qualified for the responsible stations which had been assigned to them, not 

 only by their extensive attainments in letters, and all the arts and sciences 

 connected with Horticulture, but from twenty years experience in the 

 practical operations of every branch of rural industry. Bosc D'Antin, the 

 Inspector of the Imperial Nurseries, having taken a deep interest in this 

 laudable enterprize, generously co-operated with them, to render the result 

 of their zealous efforts as eminently successful as it was important. Great 

 advantages were derived from his exact information in botany, vegetable 

 physiology and arboriculture ; and the opportunity of examining the trees 

 and fruits reared in the immense nurseries under his superintendence. 



Noisette, a no less distinguished horticulturist, having established a 

 " Methodical School and Garden of Fruit Trees," in Paris, to facilitate the 

 acquisition of a knowledge of the species and varieties, by comparing one 

 with another, rendered Poiteau and Thouin essential service. 



Although the terms used by the most distinguished -writers on the 

 culture of fruit trees, are generally similar to those employed by botanists, 

 still there is this pecuHar difference, — the former calling species, such as 

 the latter designate as varieties ; but the learned editors of the revised 

 edition of Duhamel, scrupulously adhered to the established botanical 



