108 



THE JARGONELLE PEAR. 



Jargonelle of most English Writers, hut not of Miller. Hort. 



Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 353. 

 Epargne. Hort. Cat. no. 256. 

 Grosse Cuisse Madame .. 



Beau Present 



Saint Lambert 



Saint Samson 



Poire des Tables des Princes J 



of French Writers and Gar- 

 deners. 



Every body knows the Jargonelle, the queen of 

 Autumn Pears, unequalled in flavour, and un- 

 rivalled in productiveness by any of its season. 

 We can have little to say upon it which will be 

 either new or interesting. 



Its name is derived, according to Manage and 

 Duchat, from Jargon, anciently Gergon, in Italian 

 Gergo, in Spanish Gericonga, all corruptions of 

 Grcecum ; whence Merlet infers, that the Jargonelle 

 was the Pyrum Tarentinum of Cato and Columella, 

 the Numidianum Gracum of Pliny, and the Gr(E- 

 culum of Macrobius. If this conjecture be well 

 founded, the kind to which the name belongs will 

 be one of the most ancient in cultivation. 



To this country it was certainly brought from 

 France, of which there is abundant evidence. The 

 Jargonelle of the French is, however, not ours, but 

 an inferior kind, green on one side and red on 

 the other. They call ours the Grosse Cuisse Ma- 

 dame, distinguishing it from the common Cuisse 



