PEARS. 



91 





POIRE PASSANS. Dun. 



Poire du Portugal. Duh. syn. 

 Summer Portugal ? 



This fruit is pyriform and somewhat turbinate ; the base is 

 round, and the eye is inserted in a deep cavity ; the skin is 

 green previous to maturity, but becomes yellow when that pe- 

 riod arrives ; the flesh is half-melting and of agreeable flavour, 

 and the fruit ripens in the month of October. This variety 

 is cultivated at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 



BEURRE D'ARDEMPONT. PR. CAT. N.Duii. 



Beurre d'Hardenpont. Lond. Hort. Soc. cat. 

 Hardempont, and Hardenpont. 



In the last edition of Duhamel, this fruit is thus described : 

 "This pear bears the name of M. d'Ardempont, canon of 

 Tournay, who obtained it from seed and brought it into 

 notice. It is one of the most beautiful fruits, and one of the 

 best of its class. The proprietors of nurseries cannot be 

 too anxious and prompt in obtaining and multiplying it. The 

 fruit is of very irregular shape, it would approach considera- 

 bly to an ovate form if the end next the stem were not more 

 contracted than that next the eye, and if one of its sides was 

 not enlarged and distended, whilst the other is compressed and 

 diminished in size ; the form of the Martin-sire approaches 

 this, but does not resemble it precisely. The skin is smooth 

 and almost wholly of a light green hue, which changes to yel- 

 low at the period of maturity ; the surface of the fruit is not 

 uniform on account of its being here and there enlarged by 

 swellings or projections, and on the side which is compressed 

 there is also a furrow running the whole length from the eye 

 to the stem, which is about two inches long and inserted rather 

 laterally, in a small cavity surrounded by ridges or protube- 

 rances. The pear from which this description was made 

 measured four inches in height, and three in breadth at its 



