VI.] 



LIST OF FRUITS. 



197 



stocks must generally be raised from layers or cuttings. The 

 quince-stocks are the best ; because they do not force up wood so 

 big and so lofty as the pear-stocks. The white-thorn is very dura- 

 ble and has a dwarf tendency ; but it is apt to send out suckers ; 

 and certainly does not produce a tree so fruitful in its early stages 

 as the quince-stock : the sorts of pears are almost endless. The 

 French authors mention a hundred and fifty-two sorts. I shall 

 insert the list from the Hortus Kewinsis, and then mention those 

 sorts which I think may content any man : It is : Aston-town 

 Pear, Autumn Bergamot, GanseVs Bergamot, Summer Bergamot, 

 Brown Beurree, Golden Beurree,WhiteBeurree, Bishop's Thumh, 

 Winter Bon-chretien, Williams's Bon-chretien, Citron des Carmes, 

 Chaumontelle, Crasanne, Colmar, B'Anch, Jargonelle, Lammas, 

 Martin sec ^ Bed Doyenne, Summer Rousselet , St. Germain, Swan s 

 Egg, Verte-longue, Vir gouleuse, Windsor , Catillac, Br. Uvedale's 

 St. Germain. The only pears that I think necessary are, for the 

 summer, the Green Chisel, which is the earliest of all, and if the 

 fruit come from a tree well trained and pruned, it is by no means a 

 mean pear ; the Catherine pear, which is a little long pear with a 

 beautiful red cheek ; it does not rot at the heart as some pears 

 do, and is nearly as great as a bearer as the Green Chisel itself, and 

 that is a great bearer indeed. The Summer Bergamot ; and the 

 Summer Bon-chretien. The autumn pears are the Brown Beurree, 

 the Autumn Bergamot, and particularly the GanseVs Bergamot, 

 which, in my opinion, very far surpasses the Brown Beurree. The 

 winter pears that w ould satisfy me are the Winter Bon-chretien, 

 the Colmar, the Crasanne, and the Poire d' Auch, that is to say, 

 the pear of the city of Auch in France. Pears for cooking are 

 Parkinson s pear, the Catillac, and Uvedale's St. Germain. Be- 

 sides these, there are two pears which I have propagated from 

 cuttings brought from Long Island, and which appeared to have 

 no name there : I call the one the Long Island Autumnal Pear, 

 the very finest fruit of the pear kind, w ithout any exception, that I 

 ever tasted in my life. When ripe, which it is early in October, it 

 is of a greenish yellow colour, weighs about three quarters of a 

 pound, actually melts in your mouth, and, with a little care, keeps 

 well to the middle of November. The other is what 1 call the 

 Long Island Perry Pear, which is of a middling size, very hard, 

 and very rough to the taste when raw ; but this pear, when baked, 

 or stewed and then preserved, is the finest thing of the kind that 



