A FIRST REPORT ON QUINCE STOCKS FOR PEARS. 275 



it is quite easily distinguishable, but I should not like to recommend 

 it until our ultimate trials, now in hand, yield their results. 



We have also isolated another type of similar habit, yet until 

 it has fruited I should not like to say it is identical with D, because 

 the leaf shape is less uniformly elongated though dark in colour. 

 Possibly it again is a seedling from D, for apparently, according to 

 the older writers, it was no uncommon thing to raise the commoner 

 Quince Stocks from seed. 



Type E (fig. 66). 



I have included Type E, which is chiefly grown to-day for its 

 fruit as the " Portugal Quince," because it is the type which the 

 older writers singled out for use as a Stock, though I have not heard 

 of its being used for this purpose to-day. It is easily distinguishable 

 from the other groups by its very large downy leaf and stouter vigorous 

 growth, but it is very shy to root on the stool, layers sometimes taking 

 several years to root, and then being too coarse to make good stocks. 

 It comes still more shyly from cuttings. The older writers who 

 recommended this particular stock were — with one exception — 

 aware of the difficulty of raising it — yet they still thought it worth 

 the attempt. 



Noisette describes the Portugal as more vigorous than other 

 types of Quince, and therefore the best for delicate Pears, " lesquelles, 

 par son influence, prennent plus de vigueur." In his " Orchardist," 

 Scott, who in his time was an authority on stocks, says : " The Portugal 

 sort is a far better stock, being hardier, a free grower and keeps pace 

 with the pear worked upon it, whilst the graft overgrows the other 

 varieties when used as stocks ; these are, however, much more used 

 than the Portugal as they are freer to strike root. Hence the Nursery- 

 man can more easily get up a supply for grafting his Pears upon." 



Scott re-inforces his opinion by quoting Merlet's recommenda- 

 tion of the Portugal in 1667. DUHAMEL again laments that the 

 Portugal is not in common enough use as a stock owing to propagation 

 difficulties; yet in the "Herefordshire Pomona" it is described as 

 " very easily propagated by cuttings, suckers or layers, and the young 

 trees are used as stocks to bud and graft pears on." Certainly the 

 Portugal on our soil is as reluctant to root adventitiously as it was 

 in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it is still so in many 

 other places. Unless the Portugal is pre-eminently worth using as a 

 stock, it is certainly not worth raising on a larger scale for this purpose. 

 I hope our trials may soon give some definite evidence on this point. 

 The fruit of the Portugal is undoubtedly of better quality and larger 

 in size than that of any of the Groups so far mentioned, and though 

 it is reputed to be very shy bearing, during this season (1919) it bore 

 quite profusely for small bushes. The fruit is somewhat pear-shaped, 

 and loses its down, becoming smooth. 



