PEARS. 



153 



and a half inches in height, and twenty-two to twenty-four 

 lines in diameter at its largest part, which is at about two- 

 thirds its length, measuring from the base; the eye is placed 

 in a slight cavity, which is surrounded by several projections ; 

 the stem is two inches in length, or thereabouts, and the fruit 

 has often some prominences or swellings at its insertion ; the 

 skin is greenish and somewhat marbled with fawn-colour min- 

 gled with red next to the sun ; the flesh is white, and melting, 

 with a slight acidity of flavour, which is rich and very agree- 

 able ; the seeds are black, and frequently abortive. This pear 

 is one of the most beautiful and one of the best that is to be 

 met with at the period of its maturity, which is at the end of 

 July to the tenth of August. The tree is vigorous, and may 

 be propagated on both the pear and quince." 



I also add the following description from the Pomological 

 Magazine. 



"Tree of a straggling, creeping habit; wood yellowish 

 green in the shade, reddish when exposed ; leaves rather large, 

 woolly when young, ovate, acuminate, finely and doubly ser- 

 rated ; petioles on the young shoots about an inch long ; sti- 

 pules linear ; flowers early, very large ; fruit large, oblong, 

 with a long stalk, generally a little bent ; eye open, with long 

 projecting segments of the calyx ; skin greenish yellow on the 

 shaded side, with a tinge of brownish red when exposed ; flesh 

 yellowish white, very juicy and melting, with a peculiarly rich 

 agreeable flavour ; round the core it is rather gritty, and more 

 so if grafted on the quince ; it is the queen of autumn pears, 

 and unequalled in flavour by any of its season." 



In the orchards in the vicinity of New-York, w^e have no 

 pear tree whose growth is more strong and vigorous than this, 

 and its crops are exceedingly abundant. It is deemed b} those 

 who supply the markets with fruit, to be one of the kinds best 

 calculated for that purpose, and such appears to be its charac- 

 ter wherever cultivated ; and from its being one of the oldest 

 pears, it forms a sorrowful comment on the principle of ex- 

 haustion of the variety by age. In Fessenden's American 



20 



