Descriptions of Select Varieties of Pears. 243 



Art. II. Descriptiojis and E?igravings of Select Varieties of 

 Pears. By the Editor. 



In the series of articles which we have, from time to time, 

 presented to oar readers, describing all the choicest varieties 

 of pears which have fruited in American collections, we have 

 generally placed those of native origin together. This arrange- 

 ment we have thought preferable as long as practicable, in 

 order to bring them more immediately before amateur culti- 

 vators, with a view to show their comparative merits, and to 

 give a better estimate of their number, than if they were indis- 

 criminately intermixed with foreign kinds. Until the num- 

 ber of choice native pears is so reduced, as to delay our descrip- 

 tions, this arrangement will be continued. 



67. Swan's Orange. Ge7i. Farmer, Vol VII. p. 25. 



Onondtfa Seedling, \ "^ ^°""« collections. 



In the winter of 1845, in looking over the Genesee Farmer, 

 the Horticultural department of which is under the supervis- 

 ion of our correspondent, Mr. P. Barry, of the Mount Hope 

 Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y., we were somewhat interested in 

 an account of a new pear described and figured under this 

 name. A very high encomium was bestowed upon it ; but we 

 supposed its merits were overrated, or it would not have been 

 so long confined to the locality of Rochester without being better 

 known. Believing it to be either some foreign variety, under 

 another name, as Mr. Barry expressed his doubts about its 

 native origin, or only a new fruit of fair quality, we made no 

 exertions to procure a tree for our collection, and the name, 

 for the time, was partially forgotten. 



In the summer of 1846, our correspondent, J. W. Bissell, 

 of Rochester, kindly offered to send us specimens of the vari- 

 ous new or little known fruits of western New York ; and, on 

 the 10th of October, we received a box containing a variety 

 of apples and pears, accompanied with the following note : — 

 " Swan's Orange Pear, sometimes called the Onondaga. The 

 first scions were brought here, some years since, by L. B. 

 Swan, from a tree upon the farm of his father in Onondaga 



