210 On Fertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees. 



ches of Grapes, I divested both these trees of at least three- 

 fourths of all their budding honours. On the Beurre, this 

 operation, subsequently, appeared to have the best effect. For 

 there was scarcely an instance in which the three remaining 

 blossoms did not set, which afterwards produced the finest 

 crop of Pears I have yet gathered from that tree. But on the 

 intractable Gansell, although the blossoms at first seemed to 

 set, and many of them did not fall off till Midsummer, when they 

 were nearly as large as common gooseberries, yet not a single 

 Pear arrived at maturity. By dissecting many of the largest 

 of those which fell off last, and comparing them with some 

 of the Beurres of the same age and size, it was plain that the 

 kernels of the former had not been impregnated. This cir- 

 cumstance induced me to think that there must be some im- 

 perfections in the essential parts of the blossoms. 



In the following spring of 1822, on attending to the blossoms 

 of this tree, which blooms earlier than any other Pear-tree which 

 I have, they appeared to me, to remain much longer in a glo- 

 bular state without expanding, than any other variety of Pear 

 which I have had an opportunity of noticing. I fancied like- 

 wise that the pointal was fit for impregnation before the 

 anthers were ripe, and even before the petals expanded ; and 

 from the peculiarly slender and delicate make of the latter, 

 as it struck me, I supposed, that it ceased to be in a proper 

 state as soon as it became exposed to the sun and air ; I 

 therefore concluded, that there might possibly be a chance 

 of obtaining fruit, by depriving the blossoms of their petals 

 before they expanded, and inclosing with each floret in this 

 state, within a paper envelope (as is my mode of effecting 

 artificial impregnation) a riper blossom, viz., one that had just 



