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XLIV. A short Account of some Pears and Apples, of which 

 Grafts were communicated to the Horticultural Society. By 

 Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read March 5, 1811. 



Merlet, who wrote in the latter end of the seventeenth 

 century, has described two varieties of the Fear, which were 

 at that period confounded under the name of the St. Ger- 

 main: and Du Hamel has admitted the accuracy of Mer- 

 let's account.* These varieties so closely resemble each 

 other in their wood, their buds, their foliage, and blossoms, 

 that it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other ; 

 and there is also much similarity in the external character of 

 their fruit. Both varieties are known in this country ; but 

 1 have seen one only sent from the nurseries round London, 

 and that the inferior or spurious kind ; and I have, there- 

 fore, sent a few grafts of the true St. Germain, under the 

 hope that they may prove acceptable to some Members of 

 the Horticultural Society. 



The spurious variety ripens in December, and the fruit 

 grown in my garden, and in others in the neighbourhood, 

 remains green when ripe, and generally decays before the 

 end of January ; and if the soil and season be not favourable* 



* Traite des Arbres fruitiers, torn. 2. p. 227- 



