Pomological Gossip. 175 



others, especially when no two foreign cultivators spell it 

 alike?' Now you will find that Messrs. Van Houtte of Ghent, 

 Papeleu of Wettern, Yan Geert of Antwerp, Bavay of Vil- 

 vorde, Dauvesse of Orleans, Le Roy of Angers, and Oudin 

 of Lisieux, have Va7i Assche in their catalogues, and most of 

 them have had for five or six years ; whilst Van Assene is 

 not nor has been in any European book or catalogue to 

 my knowledge. Here are seven of the most intelligent nur- 

 serymen and pomologists on the continent whose authority I 

 have. I am no way dogmatized in these matters, but simply 

 desii'e, as far as my agency is concerned, to make fruits known 

 by their true names. I cannot agree with you, and I am 

 surprised you should take such a ground that an error of 

 twenty years' standing should not be corrected. You know 

 how liable we are to commit errors when we rely on names 

 sent us in manuscript. On the continent they commit errors 

 in the same way. At this moment, the first nurseryman of 

 Paris has ' Seakle ' for our Seckel, and ' Leurs ' for Lewis ; 

 and we frequently see worse blunders than these in conse- 

 quence of a mis-reading of written names. I scarcely ever 

 feel sure I have a foreign name right until I have seen it in 

 print, in a locality where errors are not likely to be made. 



Bouvier has committed errors, so did Van Mons, and who 

 has not ? There is no ground for an argument on this point. 

 Errors have been committed on all sides ; but we must be 

 charitable enough not to believe them intentional, and do all 

 in our power to correct them. Yours truly, P. Barry." 



To a larger part of Mr. Barry's views we readily assent ; 

 yet if it was one of Van Mons's seedlings, as he states in his 

 letter to Mr. Manning, in 1835, he ought to have known hoAV 

 to spell the name. We still think that Van Assche is as 

 much a corruption of Van Assene as Seakle is of Seckel. 

 We have referred to the original list, and found, with the 

 exception of a letter or two, all the names of more than one 

 hundred and fifty pears rightly spelled. Van Mons stated 

 that he sent Mr. Manning scions of some pears then for the 

 first time sent out ; and we doubt not this was one of them, 

 for the name of Van Assche did not appear in the Belgian 



