THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE- 



NOVEMBER, 1847. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Desa'iptions and Engravings of Select Varieties of 

 Pears. By the Editor. 



In continuation of our article descriptive of select pears, we 

 have the pleasure of drawing the attention of cultivators to 

 six native varieties, some of them of great excellence, partic- 

 ularly Knight's Seedling and Winship's Seedling. Though 

 both of these have been known for some time, they do not 

 appear to have been generally introduced into cultivation. It 

 is gratifying to find the list of American pears continually 

 augmenting, and more gratifying to find some whose merits 

 have yearly improved, as soil or locality may have been fa- 

 vorable to the trees, or judicious cultivation, and more care- 

 ful ripening, may have produced better specimens. We are 

 more and more convinced that, ere long, as with the apple, 

 our greatest reliance must be placed on our native varieties. 

 Their peculiar hardiness and adaptation to our climate give 

 them a value over most foreign sorts, and, among the many 

 superior ones already brought to notice, the cultivator need 

 have no trouble in making a selection of the very finest pears. 



79. Knight's (R. I.) Seedling. N. E. Farm. Vol. X. p. 82. 



In the fall of 1831, Mr. A. Foster, of Providence, R. I., sent 

 to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society a box of pears, 

 which he called Knight's Seedling, {fig. 39,) and which he 

 accompanied with the following letter : — 



" With this, you will receive a small box containing about 

 a dozen specimens of the Knight's Seedling pear. This is a 



VOL. XIII. — NO. XI. 43 



