Descriptions of Select Varieties of Pears 253 



we have fruited here, usually in eating in December, and 

 November to February, I think it not improbable that it 

 may be a cross of the old St. Germain and Brown Beurre." 



The pears sent us by Mr. Goodale were of large size, and 

 proved to be a very excellent fruit, — not quite first-rate, but 

 well deserving a place in a select collection. Our drawing 

 was made on the 15th of December, and some of the pears 

 kept till January, though in a rather warm room. We sub- 

 sequently wrote to Mr. Goodale for some account of the ori- 

 gin of this variety, and his statement is as follows : — 



As you requested, I give you all the particulars known to 

 me in regard to the McLaughlin pear. There are some dozen 

 trees on the McLaughlin farm, about ten miles from here; all 

 are evidently grafted, some of the older near the ground, the 

 others in the branches. The widow of the man who planted 

 them says the scions came from Westbrook, an adjoining 

 town, but no such pear is known there, that I can ascertain. 

 It is believed to be a seedling raised in this vicinity. The 

 fruit, though not strictly first-rate, is usually very good, and, 

 in favorable seasons, when the trees are not overloaded, little 

 inferior to any pear of the season ; last of November to Jan- 

 uary, and they have kept sometimes nearly through Feb- 

 ruary. The trees grow in grass land, and have received no cul- 

 ture whatever for many years, and bear well. 



Gen. Wingate, in his letter dated October, 1831, states, that 

 a person in Oxford County, (whose name, he believes, was 

 Lamb,) many years since, raised a number of pear trees from 

 seeds, all of which produced, as he understood, inferior fruit, 

 with the exception of one tree; and, from that tree, the scions 

 were taken and engrafted by Mr. McLaughlin, of Scarborough. 

 There is no doubt of its native origin. 



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

 and a half in diameter : Form, oblong, tapering slightly 

 towards the crown, and contracted near the stem, where it 

 ends obtusely : Skin, fair, slightly rough, of a bright cinna- 

 mon russet, tinged with brownish red on the sunny side, 

 showing a few traces of a bright yellow ground on the shad- 

 ed side : Stem, short, about half an inch in length, rather 

 stout, swollen at its junction with the tree, little curved, and 

 obliquely inserted in a shallow cavity on one side of a small 



VOL. xin. — NO. VI. 24 



