704 APPENDIX. 



rent decay of some varieties of fruit, and especially of pears, 

 over which some cultivators, of late, have uttered so many 

 lamentations, scarcely less pathetic than those of Jeremiah . 



Having stated the theories on this subject, and given an out- 

 line of our explanation, let us glance for a moment at the actual 

 state of the so-called decayed varieties, and see whether they 

 are really either extinct, or on the verge of annihilation. 



Mr. Knight's own observations in England led him to consider 

 the English Golden Pippin and the Nonpareil, their two most 

 celebrated varieties of apple, as the strongest examples of varie- 

 ties just gone to decay, or, in fact, the natural life of which had 

 virtually expired twenty years before. A few years longer he 

 thought it might linger on in the warmer parts of England, as 

 he supposed varieties to fall most speedily into decay in the 

 north, or in a cold climate. 



Lindley, however, his contemporary, and second to no one in 

 practical knowledge of the subject, writing of the Golden 

 Pippin,* very frankly states his dissent as follows : " This apple 

 is considered by some of our modern writers on Pomology, to 

 be in a state of decay, its fruit of inferior quality, and its exist- 

 ence near its termination. I cannot for a moment agree with 

 such an opinion, because we have facts annually before our eyes 

 completely at variance with such an assertion. In Covent 

 Garden, and indeed in any other large market in the southern 

 or midland counties of England, will be found specimens of fruit 

 as perfect, and as fine, as have been figured or described by any 

 writer, either in this or any other country whatever. Instead 

 of the trees being in a state of ' rapid decay,' they may be 

 found of unusually large size, perfectly healthy, and their crops 

 abundant ; the fruit, perfect in form, beautiful in colour, and 

 excellent in quality." And the like remarks are made of the 

 Nonpareil. 



Certain French writers, about this time, gladly seized Knight's 

 theory as an explanation of the miserable state into which 

 several fine old sorts of pears had fallen, about Paris, owing to 

 bad culture and propagation. They sealed the death-warrant, 

 in like manner, of the Brown Beurre, Doyenne, Chaumontel, 

 and many others, and consigned them to oblivion in terms 

 which Mr. Kenrick has already abundantly quoted. 



Notwithstanding this, and that ten or fifteen years have since 

 elapsed, it is worthy of notice that the repudiated apples and 

 pears still hold their place among all the best cultivators in 

 both England and France. Nearly half the pear-trees annually 

 introduced into this country from France, are the Doyenne and 

 Beurre. And the " extinct varieties" seem yet to bid defiance 

 to theorists and bad cultivators. 



* Guide to the Orchard, by George Lindley. 



