BRUSSELS. 299 



Having inquired of the gardener, which pears he consi- 

 dered the best in the garden, he, without hesitation, an- 

 swered, " The St Germain, the Colmar, and the Grande 

 Bretagne." The first two we knew well : the Grande Bre- 

 tagne we desired to see, and soon recognised as our old 

 acquaintance the Grey Achan, which was here honour- 

 ed with a west wall, side by side with the Chaumon- 

 tel, and in a garden where this last pear likewise ap- 

 peared as a standard-tree. Let us beware, therefore, of 

 undervaluing, in any case, the horticultural productions of 

 our own country. While we avail ourselves of the Cale- 

 basse, the Yut, the Cheneau, or the Passe-Colmar, let us 

 not forget the Muirfowl-egg, the Warden, the Ballencrief, 

 the Pollockshaws, and others. One of the many advan- 

 tages of our projected Horticultural Garden would be the 

 forming a collection of the best Scottish pear-trees, and 

 comparing their fruit with others ; thus at once ascertaining 

 their synonyms, and their relative value. 



Mr Hay having remarked, that all the peach-trees were 

 here small and young, and that we had not, since our ar- 

 rival on the Continent, seen a single peach-tree of any con- 

 siderable age, Mr Gillet mentioned, that at Brussels these 

 trees seldom endure, in a bearing state, for more than se- 

 ven or eight years. We had hitherto ascribed this early 

 decay to the extreme lightness of the soil in the flat sandy 

 provinces through which we had passed. But here the soil 

 is different : and we suspect, that this rapid tendency to 

 infertility must be owing, in no slight degree, to an incor- 

 rect mode of pruning being followed. It is only by the ju- 

 dicious exercise of the knife in the hands of a discriminating 

 gardener, that a succession of bearing twigs can be elicited 

 on the peach-tree, or on other trees that produce their fruit 

 on the wood of the immediately preceding year. 



