Retrospective Criticism. 273 



strike suddenly down below most of the roots and below all our ordinary 

 tillage, when the tree and its fruits must inevitably stop growing all at 

 once, and thus continue stationary for a season, until the return of show- 

 ers, when they start growing again, but with difficulty. This remark ap- 

 plies more particularly to their late hardy fruits. Their springs, more- 

 over, commence in February; vegetation, indeed, progresses slowly at 

 first, but it continues usually uninterrupted from very severe droughts 

 for a very long period of time, or until late in autumn. At Vitry, and 

 also at the mansion of M. Vilmorin, in the Rue du Seine, Faubourg Saint 

 Germain, at Paris, I was shewn specimens of many of our late fruits, all 

 very large ; the Cure of Clion, in particular, being of very uncommon 

 size and beauty ; and all much larger than any of the same kinds I had 

 seen produced at Boston by any of the ordinary modes of cultivation. 



Here I will remark, for once, that a fruit, however ^?s^ rate it may be 

 as to flavor and quality, yet if wanting in all other essential qualities, it 

 must necessary become an outcast. Thus the GanseFs Bergamot, al- 

 though combining good size, with a fair appearance, with first rate or ex- 

 cellent flavor, not all these could save it from just condemnation ; for 

 being wanting in other most essential qualities, it has necessarily become 

 an outcast from general cultivation ; such are the miserably unproductive 

 habits of the tree, that it can yield no profit to the cultivator by any equiv- 

 alent which would be paid for its fruit, if sold in the market. While, on 

 the other hand, the Williams Bon Chretien or Bartlett, however of excel- 

 lent quality in our climate, it is put down by Mr. Thompson as only of 2d 

 quality in that climate and at that garden, in the Catalogue of the London 

 Horticultural Society. Yet on account of its other remarkable qualities 

 of size and beauty, and its great productiveness, it is raised in very great 

 abundance about London, being there, as here, a great favorite, and justly 

 considered as one of the most popular fruits of the market for its season, 

 the public being generally well satisfied with quality which is simply good, 

 provided that size and beauty and abundance are superadded, which is all 

 they require. 



The Cur6 of Clion is, at maturity, both beurre and juicy in flavor ; as 

 a late fruit, it is agreeable and good, loithout being in this respect superior. 

 To this essential qualification it combines other qualities which are vei-y 

 remarkable. Its very uncommon size and great beauty, its wonderful pro- 

 ductiveness, and the time during which it will keep, must, as I believe, 

 render it one of our most popular and profitable winter fruits for the ex- 

 tensive supply of our markets. It keeps till January or February. — Wil- 

 liam Kenrick, Nonantum Hill, Newton, June 26, 1843. 



P. S. The Van Mons Leon Le Clerc is not, as I perceive, put down or 

 described in the last edition of the London Horticultural Society's Cata- 

 logue, although Mr. Thompson alludes to it by name once ; but this 

 omission is only to be accounted for from the obvious reason that this fruit 

 had not as yet been produced or proved in that garden . Yet the descrip- 

 tions of this fruit which you have republished in a former year, are obvi- 

 ously the descriptions by himself alone. When at that garden, for the 

 first time, in the fall of 1840, Mr. Thompson shewed me a specimen of 

 the Van Mons Leon Le Clerc, as received, no doubt, by him from the Isle 

 of Jersey. He then renewedly assured me that this fruit, as a pear, was 

 believed to be the best in the world. Its unusually large size, its uncom- 

 mon beauty combined with its great excellence, entitle it justly to this 

 VOL. IX. — NO. VII. 35 



