PEAKS. 377 



fleshy swelling on one side of it. Flesh, white, fine-grained, crisp, and 

 tender, sweet, and with a musky flavour. 



One of the very best culinary pears with which I am acquainted, and 

 quite free from that disagreeable grittiness which is peculiar to baking 

 pears generally. It is both in size and every other respect superior to 

 the Catillac, and contitiues in use from November till April. 



The tree is a free and vigorous grower, an excellent bearer, and 

 succeeds well as a standard either on the pear or the quince. 



Bellissime de Jardin. See Beguesne, 



BELMONT. — Fruit, medium sized ; roundish oval, even and regu- 

 larly shaped, with somewhat of the form of a Swan's Egg. Skin, 

 rather rough to the feel, being covered with a coating of somewhat 

 rough russet, which extends over the whole surface of the fruit, with 

 the exception of the shaded side, where it is greenish yellow, and con- 

 siderably covered with patches and dots of dark brown russet. On th^ 

 side next the sun the brown russet has a coppery red glow, and some 

 faint traces of crimson mottles and streaks shining through. Eye, 

 rather small and open, destitute of segments, and set on a level with 

 the surface. Stalk, an inch long, rather slender, inserted in a small, 

 narrow, shallow cavity. Flesh, yellowish, rather coarse-grained, and 

 gritty, sugary, vinous, and with a fine Swan's Egg flavour. 



An excellent pear, almost of first-rate quality ; ripe in the end of 

 October and beginning of November. It was raised by Mr. T. A. 

 Knight, of Downton Castle. 



Benedictine. See Brown Beurre. 



BENVIE. — Fruit, small, two inches long, and an inch and three- 

 quarters wide ; obovate. Skin, yellowish green, sometimes tinged and 

 strewed with dull dingy red on the side next the sun, almost entirely 

 covered with thin, delicate, grey russet, and thickly strewed with 

 russety dots. Eye, large and open, full of stamens, with a dry mem- 

 branous calyx, which is plaited, but not divided, and covered with a 

 white crust. Stalk, an inch and a quarter long, fleshy at the base, 

 and obliquely inserted, with scarcely any depression. Flesh, yellowish, 

 buttery, juicy, perfumed, and excellent. 



A Scotch dessert pear ; ripe in August and September. The tree is a 

 free grower, and an immense bearer, so much so that the branches 

 have to be propped up during the fruit season. 



This is a very excellent variety of summer pear, adapted to the climate of 

 Scotland. It is doubtful whether it could be grown so well in the south of Engr 

 land, and retain the same flavour which it does in the nonh ; and even if it did it 

 could not rival some of the varieties which are better adapted for the southern 

 counties. Still it is worthy of the notice of orchardists in the north of England 

 and south of Scotland, and I am much surprised that it has not a wider cultivation 

 than I have hitherto observed ; the only districts where I have seen it grown to any 

 extent being the Carses of Gowrie and Stirling. I have noticed it also in great 

 perfection in Morayshire, and I have no donbt, if it were better known, it would 

 soon displace such inferior varieties as Crawford, Grey Goodwife, and many others 

 of a similar class. 



