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MV GARDEN. 



Poiteau is but middling, but the Nouvelle Fulvie is so exquisitely 

 delicious that its properties should be immediately more carefully 

 studied. Amongst the newest pears I have .lately added is the 

 Brockworth Park. Opinions differ as to its quality, and I have 

 not myself tasted it. I have tasted the Autumn Josephine, 

 which appears promising, and Powell's Premier, 

 which has merits. There is another very handsome 

 new pear, called the Benedictine (fig. 298) ; but our 

 great pomologist. Dr. Hogg, informs me that this 

 pear is only a variety of Brown Beurre. My trees 

 ' not ,having borne, I have been unable to test 

 ; the matter. All the later kinds of pear are more 

 or less capricious in their flavour and texture, as 

 well as in the precise time at which they ripen. 

 Fig. 298.-Benedictine. After Christmas the quantity of pears dwindles, 

 but this depends a great deal upon the thorough ripening of the 

 fruit in autumn. In the spring of 1870 I was in Italy, and we had 

 pears there till the beginning of May. The kind in use was the 

 "Epine driver." It was juicy, and eatable in the absence of any 

 other fruit, but most assuredly would have been cast aside for any 

 of the kinds which I have recommended. 



All pears in some seasons are apt to be gritty ; that is, have pieces 

 of hard woody tissue in their texture, which Quekett states to be 



an aggregation of a number of cells composed 

 ^^ of a material called sclerogen (fig. .299), which 

 gives the hardness to the stone of the plum, 

 to the shell of the cocoa-nut, and to the ivory- 

 nut. It is a good object for the microscope. 

 At Wallington my pears are almost ex- 

 *)/=)C/ ' II l\ \,^^^ clusively grown on the quince stock, and are 

 Fig. 299.— Grit of Pear, magnified, worked close to the ground. Some few varie- 

 ties, such as Gansel's Bergamot and Marie Louise, are worked upon a 

 pear which has itself been grafted upon the quince ; and a very few, 

 such as Jargonelle and Ne Plus Meuris, are grown on the pear stock. 



