THE GANSELL'S BERGAMOT PEAR. 



Gansell's Bergamot. Pomological Magazine, vol. i. pi. 35. 



Brocas Bergamot, \ 

 Ives's Bergamot, 

 Staunton, 

 Gurle's Beurre', 

 Bonne Rouge, 



DiAMANT, 



According to London Hort. See. Catalogue, 3d Ed. 



This tine old pear has been greatly neglected 

 in the rapid introduction of new varieties ; and 

 it is not uncommon to find large and choice 

 collections without a single specimen of this 

 kind : indeed, some cultivators, well acquainted 

 with the principal pears that we now possess, 

 scarcely know the Gansell's Bergamot. How it 

 happens that a variety of such excellence, and 

 holding the highest rank in Enghsh collections, 

 should have been so much neglected, we are at 

 a loss to imagine ; but probably the fact that it 

 is an old pear, — introduced along with the White Doyenne, Brown 

 Beurre, St. Germain, &c., which have long ceased to be generally culti- 

 vated on account of the uncertainty of the crop, — is the main reason 

 why its merits have been overlooked. 



The Gansell's Bergamot is a pear of English origin, and was obtained 

 from the seed of the Autumn Bergamot, by Lieut. Gen. Gansell, at his 

 seat at Donellan Hall, near Colchester, in 1768. It has consequently 

 been in cultivation nearly a century, and is justly esteemed by British 

 pomologists a superior fruit. At what period it was introduced into 

 American collections, we have been unable to ascertain. Mr. Lowell 

 mentions, among the few sorts cultivated in Massachusetts in 1815, the 

 Brockholst Bergamot, which was undoubtedly this pear. Coxe culti- 

 vated it in his collection in New Jersey, and described it in his work 

 (1818) as a " very fine pear." Probably it was introduced many years 

 previous, or about the commencement of the present century. 



It has the reputation of being a small bearer, but this does not ac- 

 cord with our experience. True, it is not as prolific as the Bartlett or 

 Buff'um, but produces what may be termed a good crop, just enough to 

 keep the tree in fine condition, without the troublesome labor of thin- 

 ning. The tree has a wild habit, with small bluish green leaves, but by 

 judicious pruning makes a good head. It is rather late in coming into 

 bearing, and does not succeed very well on the quince. 



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