170 JVotice of the Angora Pear. 



stance at Tiflis, he happened to meet with any of our varie- 

 ties, he never neglects to mention it by the name under which 

 it is known to us. This he has not done in the case of the 

 Angora pear, although he had it in his power so to do. It is 

 therefore very probable, or rather quite certain, that the pres- 

 ent variety is unknown to us; nor is it less certain that both 

 in respect of its time of ripening and its excellence, it presents 

 a most desirable object for our acquisition. As a zealous am- 

 ateur of horticulture, I have therefore thought I should be 

 rendering an important service to our Society by endeavoring 

 to obtain a prize pointed out to, but neglected by us, for more 

 than a century. However insignificant it may appear in other 

 respects, in so doing I have encountered difficulties which will 

 occasion no surprise to those who have set on foot similar 

 investigations in the Levant. These difficulties have at last 

 been overcome by the zeal and extreme complaisance of Gen- 

 eral Guilleminot, our ambassador at the Porte. To him, af- 

 ter many fruitless attempts, and almost in despair, I happily 

 ventured to apply, and he did not think that he was compro- 

 mising the dignity of his high station in condescending to at- 

 tend to matters which, more humble but not less useful, might 

 have called up a smile of contempt from a diplomatist more 

 tenacious of official punctilio. He has done better still, and 

 identifying himself with all that insatiabiHty of an amateur, 

 which I did not disguise from him, he has added to the pear a 

 variety of the apple, equally famous in that country, the ex- 

 cellence of which he himself has tested." 



You will observe, Mr. Editor, that the trees imported 

 by Dr. Bole last winter from Paris, and sold by Messrs. 

 Niblo & Dunlap and others, are certified to have been propa- 

 gated from the very tree sent to the Horticultural Society of 

 Paris by this very General Guilleminot! and is it credible that 

 an ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary should 

 have exhausted all his diplomatic talent in sending home from 

 Constantinople nothing better than an old homespun Catillac.'' 

 Forbid it '■'■ la superbe gravite d' un diplomate retranche dans 

 sa dignite," which we republicans would imagine more deeply 

 compromised by such a blunder, than by the simple under- 

 taking the commission to send home approved varieties of for- 

 eign fruit trees. Yours, with great respect, 



J. W. Knevels. 



Fishkill, jy. F., April, 1842. 



