PEARS. 



as Mr. Thompson has justly pointed out, is a long fruitj 

 although that writer quotes DuhamePs synonyme without 

 scruple. 



" We have not adopted the name of Onion-shaped pear, 

 which would have been a more expressive name, because the 

 French apply that term both to pears having the peculiar flat- 

 tened figure of this, and to others which grow in such clusters . 

 upon the branches that the latter resemble a string of onions, 



" The figure of this is that of an apple rather than of a pear, 

 and it is said by a French writer to be so in a greater degree 

 than any other pear he knows. A most excellent and beau- 

 tiful variety, not indeed to be compared with the Jargonelle 

 (Epargne) with which it ripens, but greatly superior to any of 

 the kinds commonly cultivated which are in eating at the same 

 time. It bears well as a standard. In perfection from the 

 lOth to the end of August. 



" Wood weak, deep chestnut-red, with distinct pale yellowish- 

 brown spots ; leaves heart-shaped, ovate, nearly flat, shining, 

 deep green, very slightly toothed ; petioles about an inch long; 

 flowers early, petals roundish ovate ; fruit depressed, middle 

 sized, with a slender stalk upwards of an inch long inserted in 

 a small roundish hollow ; eye open, placed in a shallow depres- 

 sion ; skin inclining to yellow, speckled with russet ; on the 

 sunny side bright rich red, intermixed with brownish spots ; 

 flesh white, juicy, rich, and sugary." 



I now proceed to give the description of this pear as de- 

 tailed in the New Duhamel. 



"The diameter of the fruit is twenty-eight to thirty lines, 

 and its height but twenty-four to twenty-six, its form being 

 that of a globe somewhat flattened, with a small cavity at the 

 part whence the stem rises, which is fifteen to eighteen lines in 

 length ; the skin is yellowish green, scattered over with gray- 

 ish points, and on the side exposed to the sun it is brownish- 

 red ; the flesh is sweet, half-melting, partially musky and very 

 agreeable ; the seeds are black and sometimes entirely abor- 

 tive, and the fruit ripens the middle of August." 



The assertion made in the Pomological Magazine, that Du- 



