t 250 ] 



LX V. Account of a New Pear, called Williams' Bon Chretien. 

 In a Letter to the Secretary. By William Hooker, Esq. 

 F.H.S. 



Read December 3, 1816. 



Dear Sir, 



I b e g leave to lay before the Horticultural Society, an ac- 

 count which I have obtained, at your request, of a variety 

 of Pear, specimens of which were communicated to the 

 Society in August last, by Mr. Richard Williams of 

 Turnham Green, and much approved. 



This Pear, which has been called by Mr. Aiton, in his 

 Epitome of the Hortus Kewensis, Williams Bon Chretien, 

 appears to have sprung up from seed, in the garden of Mr. 

 Wheeler, a schoolmaster at Aldermaston in Berkshire, 

 about twenty years ago, and was suffered to remain, in 

 order to prove the value of its fruit. Subsequently grafts 

 have been extensively dispersed, and many trees are now in 

 Mr. Williams' nursery and other gardens around London 

 1 have added the following description. 



The trees of this variety are of vigorous growth, and fer- 

 tile habit; their branches remarkably erect and straight, 

 until bent by the weight of fruit, Leaves broad, deep 

 green, very sharply serrated. Fruit of an irregular pyrami- 

 dal and somewhat truncated form ; large, being from 3 to 

 4| inches in length, and 2 to 3 inches in width at the widest 



