86 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



numerous varieties of new pears, that for quality are, down to the present 

 time, considered as standards of excellence. 



The success that attended the efforts of Dr. Van Mons naturally caused 

 much excitement with horticulturists, and induced similar attempts on the 

 part of others, who thus became his associates and co-laborers, most of these 

 however contenting themselves with the sowing promiscuously the seeds of 

 varieties already improved, in some instances, perhaps, of those recently 

 originated by Dr. Van Mons, and thus unawares carrying out his theory. 



This object, so successfully prosecuted in Belgium and France, was not 

 wholly neglected in the British Islands, where Mr. Knight, the then Presi- 

 dent of the London Horticultural Society, distinguished himself by pro- 

 ducing several new varieties of fruit of different species. The method of 

 raising seedlings adopted by Mr. Knight may be considered directly the 

 reverse of that pursued by Dr. Van Mons, for Mr. Knight depended for 

 success upon the artificial cross impregnation of one variety with another, 

 selected fjr the purpose. Although Mr. Knight succeeded in producing 

 some varieties of pears that he deemed worthy of propagation, yet none of 

 them are now held in much estimation ; indeed, so far as is now remem- 

 bered, with the exception of the Williams's Bon Chretien, or Bartlett, the 

 Gansel's Bergamot, and perhaps the Dunmore, there are no pears of 

 English origin that are held in much account in the United States. 



The interest created by the production of these new fruits naturally 

 led to their early introduction into this country, and, so zealously and unin- 

 terruptedly has efforts for this purpose been prosecuted, that there may now 

 be found in the different collections round Boston almost every variety of the 

 pear that has been thought worthy of propagation. 



In addition to those of foreign, the collections of this country contain, too, 

 many of domestic origin, such in most cases having been the result of 

 chance or accident, though the raising of new 'varieties from seed has not 

 been here wholly neglected or unrewarded, as is evinced by the marked 

 success of Mr. Francis Dana of Roxbury, in originating new kinds. 



From this it may be inferred, as is the fict, that the cultivation of the 

 pear in tliis vicinity has not been confined to those Avhose qualities have 

 been thoroughly tested and approved, but embraces a wide range of varie- 

 ties, without much regard to the character of the tree for vigor and har- 

 diness. 



Heretofore an opinion has prevailed that on the seaboard, at least of 

 Massachusetts, and perhaps New Hampshire, the soil and climate were 

 eminently suited to the pear ; that, although in reality an exotic, it having 

 never been found as indigenous in any part of the United States, yet it had 

 become so completely acclimated that it might be treated as a native, and 

 that here, while the tree obtained a healthy, vigorous growth, the warmth 

 and brightness of the summer, and especially the alternation from the ex- 

 treme heat of the day to the coolness of the night in the latter part of that 

 season, was calculated to the production of the fruit in its most perfect 

 development and highest flavor. 



That these flattering expectations with respect to the fruit were not 



