THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



MAY, 1849. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art, I. Descriptions and Engravings of Select Varieties of 

 Pears. By the Editor. 



In our Retrospective View of the Progress of Horticulture 

 for 1848, (p. 6,) we named several new varieties of pears 

 which had proved to be valuable acquisitions to American 

 collections, and stated that we should describe and figure 

 them in the course of the current volume. We now present 

 an account of six of them, among the number, four of the most 

 remarkable ones, viz., the Excellentissima, St. Dorothea, 

 Brande's St. Germain, and the Walker ; the latter one of Dr. 

 Van Mons's seedlings, sent to the late Mr. R. Manning with- 

 out name, as No. 135 of his great collection, with a request 

 that he should name such as proved valuable ; and, in ac- 

 cordance with this request, Mr. Manning the younger has 

 called it the Walker pear, in honor of Samuel Walker, Esq., 

 President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a com- 

 pliment which, we are happy to add, is most worthily be- 

 stowed. We commence our descriptions with this fine pear. 



103. Walker. 



No. 135 Van Mons, Mag. o/Hort., Vol. XII, p. 147. 



In our volume for 1846. above referred to, Mr. Manning gave 

 a brief account of this pear, {Jig. 17.) The scions were 

 among a large lot of numbered varieties received by Messrs. 

 Kenrick, Manning and Dearborn, from Dr. Van Mons, in 1836, 

 and the tree came into bearing four or five years ago. In 



VOL. XV, — NO. V. 25 



