430 A Note on the Pears called Silvanges. 



fruit is half melting, white, of an excellent flavour; it ripens 

 in the end of October, and lasts till the middle of December, 

 after which it loses its excellence, becoming doughy and dry. 



Of the Silvanges, the Green, which is perhaps only a sub- 

 variety of the Long, is much preferable, and ought to find a 

 place in every good garden. It is a middling sized fruit, vary- 

 ing a good deal in its form, which may be compared to that 

 of the Pears called Bergamottes. It is usually flattened 

 towards the head, rounded towards the stalk, or terminated 

 by a very blunt point. The fruit is a little swoln in its 

 middle, and irregular in its outline ; the skin is of a bright 

 green on the shaded side, of a dark green and besprinkled 

 with gray spots on the exposed side. The whole of the 

 skin is rough, and marked with large black or gray spots ; 

 sometimes the gray spots are very much spread. The stalk is 

 short, slender, and placed obliquely in the fruit, by the side 

 of a slight elevation. The eye is small, and lies in a slightly 

 depressed cavity, the edge of which is studded with several 

 knobs. The flesh is sensibly green, near the skin, white in 

 the centre, fine, melting, soft, saccharine, and of a peculiarly 

 agreeable flavour. 



The Green Silvange ripens in the beginning of October, 

 and keeps till the end of December. Besides the advantage 

 of not rotting soon, like theBeurree d'Angleterre, theEpargne, 

 &c. it has also that of never being gritty. After the last 

 period abovementioned, the skin of the fruit turns black, 

 whilst the flesh for the greater part retains its qualities. The 

 tree of the Green Silvange has appeared to us more fertile 

 than that which produces the Long kind, which last is very 

 subject to crack when the tree grows in bad soil ; it also has 

 greater juiciness, and keeps longer. 



