350 THE FKUIT MANUAL. 



next the sun, and is marked here and there with traces of russet and 

 with a patch round the stalk. Eye, open, with erect stout segments, 

 and placed in a wide and shallow basin. Stalk, rather obliquely in- 

 serted by the side of a fleshy lip, slightly depressed. Flesh, white, 

 buttery, melting and juicy, but sHghtly gritty, with a sweet and 

 agreeably perfumed flavour. 



A second-rate American pear, which ripens in the end of September 

 and beginning of October, and which is unworthy of cultivation. 



Abondance. See Ah ! Mon Dieu. 



ACHALZIG-. — Fruit, large, three inches long, and two inches and 

 three-quarters broad; abruptly pyramidal. Skm, green at first, but 

 becoming of a lemon-yellow colour as it attains maturity, and strewed 

 with white and grey dots, and is rather rough to the feel from being 

 covered with smaU cracks. Eye, open, set in a wide shallow basin. 

 Stalk, two inches long, somewhat obliquely inserted, with a swelling 

 on one side of it. Flesh, yellowish white, slightly gritty, melting, 

 sweet, and richly flavoured. 



This pear ripens in October, and continues in use for a month afterwards. It is 

 a Crimean variety sent into Europe by Mr. Hartwiss, the superintendent of the 

 royal garden at Nikita. 



ACHAN (Black Achan ; Red Auchan ; Winter Achan ; Black Bess 

 of Castle Menzies). — Fruit, below medium size; turbinate, but frequently 

 also of an obovate shape when grown to a large size, flattened at the 

 apex. Skin, greenish yellow on the shaded side, and strewed with 

 grey russet patches and dots. On the side next the sun it is of a dull 

 brown ferruginous red, covered with large grey russety dots or 

 freckles. Eye, large and open, with broad dry reflexed segments, and 

 slightly depressed. Stalk, an inch long, obliquely inserted under a 

 large prominent lip, and surrounded with thin russet. Flesh, tender, 

 buttery, juicy, sugary, with a rich and aromatic flavour. 



A Scotch dessert pear of first-rate quality ; ripe in November and 

 December. The tree is a very abundant and regular bearer, par- 

 ticularly when it has acquired age. 



The description here given is as the fruit is grown in Scotland, 

 where it is justly reckoned one of the finest, if not the finest, winter 

 pear ; but, singularly enough, when grown in the southern counties of 

 England, it loses entirely its good properties. It is evidently one of 

 those fruits that require to be grown and ripened gradually, for in the 

 south, where it acquires much greater dimensions than it does in the 

 north, the flesh is pasty and insipid, and the fruit does not last beyond 

 the middle part of October. I have seen this variety grown in some 

 of the cold and exposed parts of England in great perfection, as from 

 Delamere Forest in Cheshire, and some parts of Yorkshire. 



Now that so many new varieties of pears have been introduced of late years, 

 oar northern gardeners are not so confined to the Achan as their ancestors were, 

 and it has now to encounter many a formidable rival. Bat tlie time was when 

 this variety was with them the very ideal of a winter pear, to which nothing could 



