THE PEAR D'ALBRET. 



Pear d'Albret. Magazine of Horticulture, vol. xx. 1854. 



Bburre' d'Albret of some Foreign Collections. 



Most of the new foreign pears, that have been 

 brought to notice during the last eight or ten years, 

 have been heralded with a great reputation, and have, 

 in consequence, attracted more than usual attention 

 among cultivators. Some of them have proved fully 

 equal to their reputed merits, while a larger part of 

 them have only been of secondary quality, and a few 

 entirely worthless. Others, again, have been added 

 to our collections, of whose merits nothing was 

 known, and from which no high expectations were 

 formed ; but it has happened, in many instances, that the latter have 

 proved of the greatest excellence, and have taken their place among the 

 choicest pears. 



The Pear dAlbret is one of the latter description ; unknown only 

 in the Catalogues of the French or Belgian nurserymen, so far as we 

 have been enabled to ascertain, it was received with many new kinds 

 from M. Jamin of Paris, in 1846, and planted out with others of un- 

 known merit, receiving but little attention until after it produced fruit 

 in 1850. Even then it did not show its true qualities; the trees being 

 yet small, and not sufficiently established to fix the character of the va- 

 riety : but in the following year, and more particularly in the season of 

 1853, the fruit was so much larger, so rich in color, and of such luscious 

 flavor, that it at once established its claim to a place among the very 

 best pears yet introduced. 



The origin and history of the Pear dAlbret is unknown to us. Not- 

 withstanding the efforts of Bivort and other Belgian and French pomol- 

 ogists to establish a correct nomenclature, there has not yet been 

 any authentic descriptions pubHshed of many of the new pears, and their 

 identity must be made out from the Nursery Catalogues. Bivort's Album 

 de Pomologie has aided much in this work, and the Annals de Pomologie 

 of the Belgian government will assist still more ; but accurate descrip- 

 tions and outline engravings, in some journal within the reach of all, 

 would be the means of enabling cultivators to determine more speedily 

 the correctness of many of the varieties which are yearly added to our 

 collections. The Beurre dAlbret of some catalogues proves to be the 

 same as the dAlbret. 



This fine pear fortunately does well upon the quince ; the tree is a 

 good, though not a strong, grower ; and with a httle care makes a fair 



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