Mr. Knighfs Seedling Pears. 155 



spring, and are now bearing fruit ; though the weather in 

 part of the spring was extremely unfavorable, and destroyed 

 every blossom of the more delicate varieties. The trees are 

 of a very rapid growth, and the varieties appear to be ex- 

 tremely well adapted to cold and late situations. 



12. Monarch Pear. Fruit of large size, obovate. The stalk 

 is, in all cases, remarkably short and thick. The eye is open, 

 in a shallow depression. The general color is yellowish- 

 brown, tinged with red next the sun, and everywhere inter- 

 spersed with roundish pale gray flecks. Flesh yellowish, 

 melting, buttery, and rich ; slightly musky, but not disagree- 

 ably so, and this is the less perceptible in a dryer season than 

 the last. The tree grows vigorously, and is a most abundant 

 bearer as a standard, the fruit from which is much higher 

 flavored than from a wall. January is its season for becom- 

 ing fit for use. 



Note. — I had this year (1834,) a sufiicient quantity of the 

 Monarch Pear to enable me to ascertain the specific gravity 

 of its juice, which is 1096 ; that is, fifteen above the Stire 

 Apple, and about that which a dissolution of 2 lbs. 6 oz. of 

 sugar would give to 8 lbs. of water. I doubt whether the 

 specific gravity of the juice of the grapes, which afford the 

 best French wines, be much greater, and the taste and flavor 

 of the expressed juice of the Monarch Pear appear to me to be 

 very delightful. I am planting it very largely for Perry, in 

 perfect confidence that sixpence per imperial quart of its ex- 

 pressed juice will afford a very high remunerating price. I 

 imagined, till the present season, that the excessively vigorous 

 growth of the variety, would render it unproductive as a wall- 

 tree, but grafts inserted three years ago are now bearing fruit, 

 and have formed a most abundant blossom for the next year. 



From these descriptions, and the notes thereto, the Pomo- 

 logist may form a good estimate of Mr. Knight's seedlings. 

 Of the twelve, only five or six have yet fruited in American 

 collections ; one of these was the Dunmore, which Mr. Knight 

 thinks fully equal to the Brown Beurre. 



But the Monarch, which Mr. Knight so named, (in honor 

 of William the IVth,) because he was " under conviction that, 

 for the climate of England, it stands without an equal," has 



