624 THE FEUIT MANUAL. 



This is the first notice we have of the Windsor Pear in England ; and it is, doubt- 

 less, from the circumstance of these growing on Windsor Hill that the variety 

 received its name. Early in the season, and before the earliest varieties of our 

 gardens are nearly ripe, there are considerable quantities of the Windsor exposed 

 for sale in the Covent Garden Market, which are imported from Portugal, and 

 which are said to be shipped at Oporto. I never could ascertain the name under 

 which they were imported, but have not the slightest doubt about the identity of 

 the variety. 



Winter Beurre. See Achan. 



Winter Beurre. See Chaumontel. 



WINTER BON CHRETIEN {D'Angoisse; Bon Chretien d'Hiver; 

 Bon Chretien d'Auch ; Bon Chretien de Tours ; De St. Martin). — 

 Fruit, large and very variable in shape, some irregularly pyrifonn, 

 and others obovate-turbinate, uneven and bossed in its outline. Skin, 

 dingy yellow, with a tinge of brown next the sun, and strewed with 

 small russety dots. Eye, open, with long segments, and set in a deep 

 basin. Stali, an inch to an inch and a half long, obliquely inserted 

 in a close cavity. Flesh, white, crisp, juicy, sweet, and perfumed. 



A dessert pear ; ripe from December to March. The tree is tender, 

 and requires to be grown against a wall, when the fruit is excellent 

 and richly flavoiu-ed. In France this was for centuries considered the 

 finest of all the winter pears ; but of late years, since the introduction of 

 so many superior new varieties, it is only fit to be grown as a standard, 

 and cultivated as a first-rate culinary pear ; for this purpose also it is 

 used in France. A French writer of the last century says, " If you 

 are curious in large fruit, plant the Catillae Pound Pears and Double 

 ri6ur ; but if you want quality, no pear surpasses the Martin Sire and 

 Winter Bon Chretien for compotes. The coarse grain of the latter 

 being fined by cooking, its juice becomes a syrup, and contains a per- 

 fume and natural sugar which cannot be communicated artificially. 



In the Horticultural Society's Catalogue the Bon Chretien d'Auch is made 

 synonymous with this variety, and doubtless what was received proved to be so j 

 but the Bon Chretien d'Auch of Calvel is a very different fruit, and appears to me, 

 from his description, to have a close afBnity to Williams' Bon Chretien. 



The Winter Bon Chretien seems to be the type of this class. Various opinions 

 have been expressed as to the origin of the name of Bon Chretien, one of which 

 is that Franijois de Paul, the founder of the Minimes, being called to the court of 

 Louis XI. for the recovery of his health, was styled by that monarch "le bon 

 Chretien," and that he brought along with him from Calabria some of the fruit of 

 the pear now called Winter Bon Chretien ; what is said to be there grown in great 

 quantity. Hunting seriously affinns that the pear appears to have received its 

 name at the beginning of Christianity, and that from this title it merits the respect 

 of all Christian gardeners. Another opinion is, that St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, 

 was the first who obtained this variety, and that a king of France, having tasted it 

 with him, asked, when it was presented to him, for " Des poires de ce bon Chretien." 

 But perhaps the most probable derivation is from the supposition, more or less well 

 grounded, that it is the Crustumium of the Romans, but whetlier or not it is so is 

 difficult to determine. Switzer says they are so called from not rotting at the 

 heart, but beginning to decay from the exterior part. 



WINTER FRANC REAL (Fin Or d'Hivm- ; Franc Real d'Hiver ; 

 Gros Micet). — Fruit, medium sized ; obovate, irregularly shaped, and 



