PEABS. 52S 



obtained by Williams, the nurseryman at Turnham Green, Middjesex, and being 

 by him first distributed, it received the name it now bears. In 1799 it was intro- 

 duced to America by Mr. Enoch Bartlett, of Dorchester, near Boston, through 

 whom it became generally distributed, and has ever since been known by the name 

 of the Bartlett Pear. There it attains the highest perfection, and is esteemed as 

 the finest pear of its season. 



WINDSOE {Bell Tongue; Bellissime ; Figue ; Figm Musquee ; 

 Green Windsor ; Grosse Jargonelle ; Konge ; Madame ; Madame de 

 France ; Summer Bell ; Supreme). — Fruit, large and handsome ; pyri- 

 form, rounded at the eye. Skin, smooth, green at first, and changing 

 to yellow mixed with green, and with a faint tinge of orange and ob- 

 scure streaks of red on the exposed side. Eye, open, with stout, erect 

 segments, not at all depressed. Stalk, an inch and a half long, 

 inserted without depression, and with several fleshy folds at the base. 

 Flesh, white, tender, buttery, and melting, with a fine, brisk, vinous 

 flavour, and nice perfume. 



A fine old pear for orchard culture ; ripe in August. It should be 

 gathered before it becomes yellow. 



The tree is one of the strongest growers of any variety in cultiva- 

 tion ; particularly in its early growth, the shoots are very thick and 

 succulent-like, but short. It forms an upright, tall, and handsome 

 tree, when grown in an alluvial soil, or in a deep sandy loam, with a 

 cool subsoil ; but if the soil is stiff, cold, and humid, it very soon 

 cankers. It is a good bearer, and when grown in a soil favourable to 

 it, we have seen it produce an abundance of very large, handsome, and 

 excellent fruit. It has the property in many seasons of producing 

 sometimes a profusion of bloom at Midsummer, and a second crop of 

 fruit, which, however, is never of any value, from which circumstance 

 it has been called Poire Figue, Figue Mv^squee, and Deuxfois Van. 



The only account of this ancient variety I have ever seen is by an English 

 writer, who says, " It was raised from seed of the Cuisse Madame, by a person of 

 the name of Williamson, a relation of Williamson, whom Grimwood succeeded in 

 the Kensington Nurseryi" Grimwood succeeded to the Kensington Nursery some- 

 where about the middle or latter half of the last century, but the Windsor Pear is 

 mentioned by Parkinson, in his Paradisus, in 1629, a century before the Kensington 

 Nursery was in existence, and was even then " well knowne to most persons ; " he 

 says it " is an excellent good peare, will beare fruit sometimes twice in a yeare, 

 and (as it is said) three times in some places." 



There can be no doubt that the Windsor Pear is of foreign origin, and that it is 

 the Bellissime and Supreme of the_ early French pomologista, but it must not be 

 confounded with the Bellissime d'Ete of these later writers, and of Dnhamel, who 

 has made a sad mess of many synonymes, and on whose authority in these particu- 

 lars there is no reliance to be placed. It seems at a very early period to have been 

 distributed over Europe, as we find it mentioned by J. Baptista Porta, in 1592, as 

 being cultivated about Naples under the name of Pero due volte I'anno ; and even 

 in our own country we find it flourishing even earlier than this ; for Sir Hugh 

 Plat, in giving the authority of " Master Hill," who lived about 1563, " Why trees 

 transplanted doe alter," says, " Trees that bears early, or often in the year, as pear 

 trees upon Windsor- Hill, which bear three times in a year ; these though they be 

 removed to as rich, or richer soil, yet they do seldom bear so early, or so often, 

 except the soil be of the same hot nature, and have the like advantages of situation, 

 and other circumstances with those of Windsor. And, therefore, commonly the 

 second fruit of that pear tree being removed, doth seldomo ripen in other places." 



