704 APPENDIX. 
rent decay of some varieties of fruit, and especially of pears, 
over which some cultivators, of late, have uttered so many 
lamentations, scarcely less pathetic than those of Jere: ah. 
Having stated the theories on this subject, and given an out 
line of our explanation, let us glance for a moment at the actua 
state of the so-called decayed varieties, and see whether they 
are really either extinct, or on the verge of annihilation. : 
Mr. Knight’s own observations in England led him to consider 
the English Golden Pippin and the Nonpareil, their two most 
celebrated varieties of apple, as the strongest examples of varie- 
ties just gone to decay, or, in fact, the natural life of which had 
virtually expired twenty years before. A few years longer he 
thought it might linger on in the warmer parts of England, as 
he supposed varieties to fall most speedily into decay in the 
north, or in a cold climate. 
Lindley, however, his contemporary, and second to no one in 
practical knowledge of the subject, writing of the Golden 
Pippin,* very frankly states his dissent as follows: “ This apple 
is considered by some of our modern writers on Pomology, to 
be in a state of decay, its fruit of inferior quality,.and its exist- 
ence near its termination. I cannot for a moment agree with 
such an opinion, because we have facts annually before our eyes - 
completely at variance with such an assertion. In Covent 
Garden, and indeed in any other large market in the southern 
or midland counties of England, will be found specimens of fruit 
as perfect, and as fine, as have been figured or described by any 
writer, either in this or any other country whatever. Instead 
of the trees being in a state of ‘rapid decay,’ they may be 
found of unusually large size, perfectly healthy, and their crops 
abundant ; the fruit, perfect in form, beautiful in colour, and 
excellent in quality.” And the like remarks are made of the 
Nonpareil. , 
Certain French writers, about this time, gladly seized Knight’s 
theory as an explanation of the miserable state into which 
several fine old sorts of pears had fallen, about Paris, owing to 
bad culture and propagation. They sealed the death-warrant, 
in like manner, of the Brown Beurré, Doyenné, Chaumontel, 
and many others, and consigned them to oblivion in terms 
which Mr. Kenrick has already abundantly quoted. 
Notwithstanding this, and that ten or fifteen years have since 
elapsed, it is worthy of notice that the reptdiated apples and 
pears still hold their place among all the best cultivators in 
both England and France. Nearly half the pear-trees annually 
introduced into this country from France, are the Doyenné and 
Beurré. And the “ extinct varieties” seem yet to bid' defiance 
to theorists and bad cultivators. i 
* Guide to the Orchard, by George Lindley. 
