350 Descriptions of Select Varieties of Pears. 



trained to the walls, pears, weighing ten or twelve ounces 

 each, have been produced, of surpassing excellence. A small 

 tree in our collection, upon the quince, has annually pro- 

 duced a crop of fine fruit. 



In cold and unfavorable seasons, when the fruit does not 

 attain a good size, it is often wanting in flavor and extremely 

 acid ; this has induced some cultivators to class it as only an 

 "ordinary pear. Coxe, in his account of it, says, " it is of 

 very varying excellence ;" and Mr. Manning remarks, that 

 " it is one of the best if not the best of the old varieties. 

 In exposed places the pears are worthless, but in protected 

 gardens, or in cities, or trained to a wall, they are still excel- 

 lent." (Vol. Ill, p. 44.) Its qualities should, therefore, 

 only be judged when the specimens are produced under 

 favorable circumstances. It is true there are now so many 

 new pears of great merit, at the season of the Brown Beurre, 

 that its loss would not be noticed ; still it is to be hoped that 

 so good a fruit will not be entirely neglected or its cultiva- 

 tion abandoned. 



The tree is of a rather straggling and irregular habit, and 

 only of moderately vigorous growth. It succeeds well on 

 the quince and produces abundant crops. 



Size, large, about three inches long, and nearly three in 

 diameter : Form, obovate, regular, largest in the middle, 

 tapering in a swollen manner to the stem : /S/cin, fair, nearly 

 smooth, dull green, becoming yellowish green when mature, 

 and pretty regularly covered with tracings and specks of 

 dull russet : Stem, medium length, about three quarters of 

 an inch long, stout, and obliquely inserted on the somewhat 

 obtuse base, without any cavity : Eye, medium size, open, 

 and nearly even with the surface of the crown ; segments 

 of the calyx short and refiexed : Flesh, greenish white, 

 little coarse, melting and juicy : Flavor, rich, vinous, spright- 

 ly, perfumed and excellent : Core, large and slightly gritty : 

 Seeds, small, broad, dark brown. Ripe in September and 

 October. 



