PEARS. 



123 



marking that the Ambret or Ambrette and the L' Echasserie 

 bear considerable resemblance to each other, he proceeds to 

 comment on the differences that exist between them. The 

 Ambrette, he states, is in point of shape a little flatter, and its 

 eye sunk in a cavity, whereas the L' Echasserie has its eye or 

 crown quite jetting out ; their size is similar, and they resem- 

 ble each other likewise in colour, though the former is cam- 

 monly of a deeper and ruddier hue, and the latter lighter and 

 yellower, more especially when it becomes fully ripe. They 

 are also nearly alike in their stems, and ripen at the same pe- 

 riod. They greatly assimilate in the delicious qualities of the 

 fruit when at maturity, in which respect however the L' Es- 

 chasserie partially surpasses the other. The flesh of the Am- 

 brette is sometimes rather more of a greenish hue, its seeds 

 blacker and in large cells, and its skin is usually a little more 

 rough to the touch. 



The L' Echasserie is occasionally knobbed or warty, but 

 it is the wood which presents the most striking distinction, that 

 of the Ambrette being extremely thorny and prickly, precisely 

 like the wild trees seen in the hedges, which is not the case 

 with the other ; for although it shoots out some points, they 

 are not however sufliciently sharp to prick the fingers as those 

 of the Ambrette will do. M. De la Quintinye further re- 

 marks, that the L' Echasserie had not made its appearance 

 above twenty years, but that the Ambrette was already of an- 

 cient standing. 



I will now proceed to give the description of it according 

 to Duhamel and Rozier. 



The shoots of the Ambrette tree are short, straight, and 

 perfectly round, of a light grayish green hue where shaded, 

 and a gridelin colour next the sun ; the buds are large, round- 

 ed, very acute, turned off from the branch, the base that sup- 

 ports them projecting but slightly ; the leaves are of medium 

 size, not indented, but furrowed or wrinkled ; the flower con- 

 sists of oval petals, hollowed in the manner of a spoon, and 

 the summits of the stamens are light purple mingled with 

 white ; tlie fruit is two inches in diameter, and twenty-five lines 



