PEARS. 



45 



Many of the intelligent horticulturists around Boston have 

 ceased to cultivate this variety on account of the fruit pro- 

 duced being small and knotty, a difficulty that perhaps may 

 be remedied by pursuing the same course recommended for the 

 Summer Bonchretien. 



In the vicinity of the city of New- York and on Long 

 Island this variety of the pear is more extensively cultivated 

 than any other, and most of the very ancient ingrafted trees 

 there met with are of this description, where from time imme- 

 morial it has borne the title of the Virgalieu pear. How this 

 name originated, and whether it was brought by the ancient 

 Dutch settlers, or by some of the numerous French emigrants 

 at the revocation of the edict of Nantz, it seems impossible 

 iiow to determine ; suffice it to say, that by that title and cor- 

 ruptions thereof, it has been solely known in the localities re- 

 ferred to from the remotest period of its probable introduction. 

 I am thus particular because there has been some cavilling at 

 the application of this title in the New- York nursery catalogues ; 

 and it has been also said that the name belonged to another 

 fruit, and in support of the latter position, a misnomer never 

 adopted here has been advanced for the real one, and by an 

 erroneous statement at the outset that the horticulturists of this 

 vicinity called this fruit the Virgouleuse, a miraculous misap- 

 plication has been made out where none existed. 



In support of the correctness of adopting the title of Vir- 

 galieUf which long custom had established and by which it 

 was alone known to the inhabitants of this state and adjoining 

 districts of other states, numerous instances may be cited of 

 fruits originally introduced into England and other countries 

 under erroneous titles and long cultivated by those names, where 

 it has been deemed a matter of necessity to retain them, and 

 they have been consequently adopted by their most intelligent 

 writers on horticulture. A very striking instance of this kind 

 is that of the Jargonelle pear, (so called in England) which is the 

 Epargne, or Grosse cuisse madame of France, the error in re- 

 gard to which has been recorded for more than an age in English 

 works without any attempt to rectify it,from the circumstance that 



