272 Retrospective Criticism. 



in all probability identical with the Saint Lezain, a pear cultivated from 

 time immemorial in Anjou, and introduced about forty or fifty years ago 

 into the collections around Paris. M. Bosc found, notwithstanding, that 

 these fruits were higher colored, and better in quality than the Saint Le- 

 zain. M. Vilmorin observes, that Messrs. Noisette and Poileau alike and 

 equally regard both as of the same species ; but on this he further re- 

 marks, that the Poire Monsieur is very juicy, while on the contrary the 

 Saint Lezain is of a clammy consistence and without juice, or quite want- 

 ing in this respect ; and that finally the Poire Monsieur, by reason of its 

 merit, as found in the Canton de Chatillon-sur-Indre, has been dissemina- 

 ted not only in the Department of Berri, but also in other parts of France, 

 under the same name. 



At the date of this communication, (Nov. 1827,) M. Vilmorin submit- 

 ted the fruits of this species, which he had raised from the grafts sent to 

 him by M. de la Tremblaye, to the Committee of the Horticultural Soci- 

 ety of Paris ; and in February, 1828, the report of M. du Petit-Thours 

 was published in the name of that Committee, in the annals of that Soci- 

 ety of that date. They report that this fruit " was probably identical 

 with the Poire de Saint Lezain, yet that, nevertheless, it differs from that 

 in several respects, and its identity is still doubted in the eyes of M. Vilmo- 

 rin.'''' 



I would not thus have dwelt on this part of the subject, had you not 

 started new doubts, thus leaving the public to infer that this might be 

 identical with the Saint Lezain, referring us as your authority to the 

 " Bon Jardinier.'" Or had I not with regret perceived that the venerable 

 and distinguished Monsieur Poiteau, in the volume of the Bon Jardinier 

 for 1841, which he presented to me when last I saw him, still persists in 

 placing the ^^ Poire de Curi^^ as a synonym of the old Saint Lezain, 

 since the proofs to the contrary are so ample and conclusive. Those new 

 doubts I should be anxious to remove, as tending to unsettle the public 

 mind. Yet if we consider the time and circumstances under which the 

 gentlemen of that Committee made their examinations and their dubious 

 report, which was at Paris, and must have been between the months of 

 November and February, is it not even more than probable that they 

 judged of the fruit rather by its y'orm and dimensions alone, and not at all 

 by the tree or its leaf, since in this as in all other respects, confessedly, the 

 fruits disagree ; the Saint Lezain being besides, according to M. Jamin 

 and other authorities, an October, and this a luinter fruit . So judged not 

 Mr. Manning, and the most intelligent French nurserymen, as by them I 

 am well assured. These know to the contrary, and that the distinction is 

 both far and wide. These judge as did the celebrated Duhamel, not by 

 the fruit alone, which is from various causes often liable to vary, but by 

 the tree and its habits and its leaf; also, these being in their indications 

 even far more certain and invariable. 



At Paris, the varieties of fruits of different species usually grow of 

 larger dimensions than with us at Boston, which I ascribe in part to their 

 higher cultivation and deeper tillage generally, for which reason the roots 

 go down deej), where the trees and their fruits will continue to grow un- 

 interrupted by ordinary droughts. Our sun is more powerful from its 

 higher elevation, and from skies less obscured by clouds, and all produc- 

 tions, when they do grow, grow more rapidly with us. But droughts 

 come more frequent and severe with us from this cause ; these droughts 



