Retrospective Criticism. 269 



Art. III. Retrospective Criticism. 



Errata. — In our February number, p. 116, fifteen lines from the top, 

 for " taste," read " table." In the May number, p. 162, fifteen lines 

 from the bottom, for " Frotheringham," read " Fotheringham," and at 

 p. 164, first line, the same error occurs. In the June number, p. 204, 

 fifteen lines from the bottom, for " Du Dord," read " Du Nord." 



Remarks on the Pear called Poire de Monsieur le Cxiri , Poire Monsieur , Du- 

 mas, Belle de Berri, Le Cure, or Clion, Curi. of Clion, Pater Notte, or, by 

 some of the English, Vicar of Winkfield. — In your Magazine of Horticulture 

 for April, you have republished several valuable descriptions of fruits from 

 the 3d and new edition of the London Horticultural Society's Catalogue 

 of Fruits, which was published in London last winter. This valuable 

 work being the production of Mr. Thompson, who for so many years has 

 been the chief superintendent of the numerous specimen fruit trees, the 

 collections from all countries, which have been cultivated and proved in 

 that garden. In that number, in that connection, and from that source, at 

 page 129, you have described a new French pear, under the English 

 name of " Vicar of Winkfield,^' after which you have added, as synonyms, 

 " Monsieur le Cur6, Dumas, Clion, and the Bourgmestre of many culti- 

 vators around Boston, as described by Mr. Manning, in his Book of Fruits, 

 No. 67, at p. 90 ;" to all which you have appended the following remark- 

 able words : "after much confusion in regard to this variety, the true 

 name has been at last discovered, and the synonyms detected." 



It is true Mr. Thompson has described this fruit under the name 

 " Vicar of Winkfield," this being the name under which undoubtedly he 

 had received the fruit from some Englishman or English nurseryman. 

 To this he has added, as synonyms, Dumas, Monsieur le Cure, these, and 

 these only, as I believe ; these being names under which he had undoubt- 

 edly received and also identified the fruit from other sources. But we 

 have no evidence for supposing, from this circumstance, that he consid- 

 ered Vicar of Winkfield as the suitable or proper name. I have evidence 

 to the contrary, and in proof that he did not so consider it, I will instance 

 a parrallel case, where, in your Magazine for May, you have extracted 

 from Mr. Thompson, and this same source, the name and description of 

 another fruit, of a plum, there called " Coe's Fine Late Rcd.^'' To this 

 name he has in like manner appended the synonyms (as discovered by 

 himself,) of Saint Martin, Saint Martin Rouge. Yet a little more than 

 two years since, when in person I first saw him, amongst other questions, 

 I put the question to him, direct, in regard to this last named fruit, he replied 

 that Saint Martin, or Saint Martin Rouge, toas the only -proper name, or 

 words to that effect. I was aware at the time, that he had previously pub- 

 lished the same in Loudon's Magazine. In this case it will be perceived 

 that the proper name was to be found only in the synonyms. In my new De- 

 scriptive Catalogue, and also in the two last editions of the New Ameri- 

 can Orchardist, I have called the name of this fruit " Clion," or rather as 

 I should call it, " Cure of Clion.'' On high authority I have so called 

 this new and remarkable fruit, to designate the name and place of its ori- 

 gin, which was in the woods of Clion, in Central France, and where the 

 original tree now stands, or where it lately stood by last accounts. 



In what other English or American list, of a previous date, is the name 



