Or, Descriptio7is of New Fruits. 365 



have been opened, great quantities have been sent to Bos- 

 ton from New York, where it is produced in abundance in 

 the orchards of that vicinity. No tree is more flourishing 

 or vigorous, or produces more abundant crops ; the growth 

 being of a stragghng and rather pendulous habit, the pears 

 hang so thickly as to almost hide the wood and foliage. 

 Its great vigor forms, says Prince, " a sorrowful comment 

 on the principle of exhaustion of the variety by age." In 

 Kenrick's Orchardist it is denominated an " outcast." 



There has been much confusion in regard to the name. 

 We follow the Lon. Hort. Soc. Cat. in calling it the Jargo- 

 nelle, that name having so long been adopted with English 

 cultivators. Mr. Prince, following the French writers, 

 calls it the Epargne, and thinks we should not continue the 

 blunders of the English, who received this variety from 

 France under the latter name. There is a real Jargonelle 

 of the French, and thus the adoption of two names alike 

 may lead to confusion. Long usage, however, must be 

 the apology for continuing the name of Jargonelle, which 

 is now so universally adopted with English writers.^ 



According to the Pom. Mag. the name is derived from 

 Jargon, anciently Gergon, in Italian Gergo, in Spanish 

 Gericonca, all corruptions of Graciim ; whence Merlet in- 

 fers that the Jargonelle was the Pyrmn Tarentimmi of 

 Cato and Columella, the Numidianimi Grcecuni of Pliny, 

 and the Grseculum of Macrobius. If this conjecture be 

 well founded, the kind to which the name belongs will be 

 one of the most ancient in cultivation. 



<S'i2;e, large, three and a half inches long, and two and a 

 half in diameter : Form, pyramidal, largest in the middle, 

 above which it is slightly contracted, tapering to the stem, 

 at the base of which are a few uneven projections : ^kin, 

 fair, smooth, yellowish green, clouded with dull red on the 

 sunny side, marbled with smooth russett around the stem, 

 and slight greenish dots distributed over the surface : Stem, 

 long, two inches, rather slender, curved, pale green and 

 brown, set even with the surface of the fruit : Eye, small, 

 open, considerably sunk in a small furrowed cavity ; seg- 

 ment of the calyx long and projecting: Flesh, yellowish 



* Since the above was written, Mr. Prince's new catalogue has come 

 to hand, and we observe he now adopts the name of Jargonelle. — Ed. 



