236 Domestic Notices. 



exhibition of the season will take place on Saturday, May 15th, when pre- 

 miums will be awarded for greenhouse plants, pelargoniums, roses, cac- 

 tuses, &c. &c. The season has been rather backward, and the day has 

 been put forward from the 1st to the 15th on this account ; yet we antici- 

 pate a good display of plants, especially of pelargoniums. — Ed. 



Cultivation of the Fig, and new Varieties of the Pear. — By accident. I 

 did not see the number of your Magazine containing my last communication 

 and your request for the fig trees, until a very few nights since, when it was 

 quite late to send the trees, as they are out in small leaf. I will try, how- 

 ever, to send you some of them later in the season, or, if I cannot, 1 will 

 send you small trees of all the good kinds we have in cultivation that I can 

 get. The fig grows readily from cuttings, put out in August, and frequent- 

 ly bears a few fruit the next spring. Of all the varieties we have, and they 

 are not very few, the Alicante and Celestial are decidedly the best. 

 The coming summer, I hope to be able to send you outlines of the most re- 

 markable. My wife took the outline of one of the first Alicante figs we had 

 last summer, which I send you herein. It is much longer than usual, but 

 proportionably narrower in consequence, and probably not of the .largest. 

 This is the most productive variety I have ever seen, bearing constantly, 

 from about the middle of July until about the middle of November, when 

 we usually have our first killing frost. This one was plucked ripe on the 

 4th June, in the open garden, being one of what is usually called first crop ; 

 usually, we get only the second and third crops. The true shape of this 

 fig is more nearly such as my dotted outline, but may be not quite so large, 

 but little if any smaller. 



Since my first communication to you I have considerably increased 

 my number of varieties of the pear, now numbering 126 varieties, 

 many of which may fruit this summer for the first time. I received, a 

 few days ago from Paris, the following varieties, Orpheline d'Enghien, 

 Tavernier de Boulogne, Colmar d'Aremberg, Belle — , Epine Dumas, Bezi 

 des Veterans, Bonne d'Ezee (quere Bonne des Zees ■? of you), Beurr6 gris 

 d'hiver, Nouveau or deLugon, and St. Nicholas. Do you know these varie- 

 ties and what is their character and reputation, as also of the Bon Chretien 

 Napoleon, Bonne Ente, (or Anthe) ou Sublime Gamotte, Delices Charles 

 Van Mons, Beurre des Charneuses, do. de Richelieu, do. de Beaulieu, do. 

 Moir6, Excellentissima, Louis Philippe, Bezi de Caissoy or Quessoy, do. 

 Sans pareil, Poire de Passy, Angora ou Belle Angevine, Bon Chretien d'Au- 

 che, do. de Vernois and Noisette, which 1 received last year 1 Some of this last 

 list will blossom and probably bear fruit the coming summer, though the 

 trees (dwarfs) are very small, even for that shape. I have twice received 

 from Europe the Beurr6 gris and Beurr6 dor6 as different pears, and think 

 that they are, as both times I have lost them ; the first time, one tree lived 

 a few years and died of the fire-blight, when 1 was travelling for the sum- 

 mer, and the last year it came dead, while the true Beurr6 gris is a very 

 vigorous and flourishing tree. They are considered as different in every 

 •work on gardening that I have in French. I received, both last year and 

 this, the Bartlett from Paris, as the Bon Chretien Williams, and not as 



