AUTUMN FEARS. 



415 



pale green, washed with pale brown on the sunny side, and dot- 

 ted with brownish specks. Calyx small, set on the narrow 

 crown without being sunk. Flesh soft, juicy, with a sweet, 

 somewhat musky flavour. October. 



174. SECKEL. Coxe. Lind. Thomp. 



Seckle. 

 Sickel. 

 New-York Red Cheek. 



Syclde. 



Red Cheeked Seckel. 



We do not hesitate to pronounce this American pear the rich- 

 est and most exquisitely flavoured variety known. In its high- 



ly concentrated, spicy, and 

 honied flavour, it is not sur- 

 passed, nor indeed equalled, 

 by any European variety. 

 When we add to this, that the 

 tree is the healthiest and har- 

 diest of all pear trees, forming 

 a fine, compact, symmetrical 

 head, and bearing regular and 

 abundant crops in clusters at 

 the ends of the branches, it is 

 easy to see that we consider 

 no garden complete without 

 it. Indeed we think it in- 

 dispensable in the smallest 

 garden. The stout, short- 

 jointed olive-coloured wood, 



Fig. 188. SecM. distinguishes this variety, as 



well as the peculiar reddish-brown colour of the fruit. The 

 soil should receive a top-dressing of manure frequently, when 

 the size of the pear is an object. The Seckel pear originated on 

 the farm of Mr. Seckel, about four miles from Philadelphia.* 



* The precise origin of the Seckel pear is unknown. The first pomologists of 

 Europe have pronounced that it is entirely distinct from any European variety, 

 and its affinity to the Rousselet, a well known German pear, leads to the suppo- 

 sition that the seeds of the latter pear having been brought here by some of the 

 Germans settling near Philadelphia, by chance produced this superiour seedling. 

 However this may be, the following morceau of its history maybe relied on as au- 

 thentic, it having been related by the late venerable Bishop White, whose tena- 

 city of memory is well known. About 80 years ago, when the Bishop was a lad, 

 there was a well known sportsman and cattle dealer in Philadelphia, who was 

 familiarly known as " Dutch Jacob." Every season, early in the autumn, on 

 returning from his shooting excursions, Dutch Jacob regaled his neighbors with 

 pears of an unusually delicious flavour, the secret of whose place of growth, 

 however, he would never satisfy their curiosity by divulging. At length the 

 Holland Land Company, owning a considerable tract south of the city, disposed 

 of it in parcels, and Dutch Jacob then secured the ground on which his favorite 

 pear tree stood, a fine strip of land near the Delaware. Not long after- 

 wards, it became the farm of Mr. Seckel, who introduced this remarkable fruit to 



