442 Descriptions of Select Varieties of Pears. 



often supplied by inferior varieties, whose merits are more 

 frequently novelty than excellence;" this was in 1832; but 

 now that we have so many fine pears, this can scarcely be 

 true with us ; yet it is so good a fruit that those who possess 

 large trees should retain it in cultivation. 



The tree is a somewhat rambling grower, with straggling 

 branches, and roundish, wavy leaves. It does not succeed 

 upon the quince, and should always be worked on the pear. 



Size, large, about three and a half inches long and two 

 and a half in diameter : Form, obtuse pyramidal, knobby and 

 very uneven in its outline, large in the middle, narrowing to 

 the eye, and obtuse at the stem : Skin, fair, smooth, pale 

 lemon yellow, often broadly tinged with bright red on the 

 sunny side, and covered with small green and russet specks : 

 Stem, long, one and a half to two inches in length, rather 

 stout, curved, little swollen at the base, and obliquely in- 

 serted in a small cavity on one side of a swollen lip : Eye, 

 medium size, open, and rather deeply sunk in a large, un- 

 evenly formed, and open basin ; segments of the calyx me- 

 dium length, pointed, projecting : Flesh, yellowish white, 

 little coarse, tender and juicy : Flavor, sugary, pleasantly 

 perfumed and good: Core, medium size, little gritty: Seeds, 

 long and pointed, mostly abortive. Ripe in August and Sep- 

 tember. 



116. RoNVTLLE. Neiv Duhamel. 



The Ronville pear {fig- 37) is but little known to pomolo- 

 gists. The New DuhaTnel gives a beautifully colored figure 

 and full description of it; but the Catalogue of the London 

 Horticultural Society, for 1842, does not enumerate the true 

 one, though it gives the name of Ronville as a synonyme of 

 the Martin Sire, a crisp winter fruit, while the true Ronville 

 is an autumn pear, with melting or half melting flesh. We 

 only know of the existence of this variety in collections in 

 Salem, and our specimens were given to us in 1844, by Mr. 

 J. F. Allen, of that city, in whose garden there is a large tree, 

 which uniformly bears good crops. In size, and general 

 form and appearance, it so much resembles the Swan's Or- 

 ange, that some cultivators have insisted upon it that the 



