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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



mealy or gritty, perhaps both, and lack the piquancy of the same 

 varieties of fruit grown in the open garden, not to mention the 

 longer preservation of the open garden fruits. I do not over- 

 look the necessity of having abundant wall space for the best 

 later ripening varieties, but it is to gain this that I strongly 

 advise the relegation of early and second-rate mid-season 

 kinds to the open garden. The varieties most worthy of the 

 best aspects on walls are Beurre Superfin, Beurre Hardy, Louise, 

 Bonne of Jersey, Seckle, Doyenne du Cornice, Marie Louise, 

 Pitmaston Duchesse, Thompson's, Winter Nelis, Glou Morceau, 

 Huyshe's Victoria, General Todtleben, and Easter Beurre. 



The Best Varieties. — I think that the difficulty next to a bad 

 climate for Pear cultivation is the bogey of varieties. I was recently 

 informed by a friend, who ought to know, that a certain Continental 

 nurseryman grows four hundred varieties. I don't envy the 

 man in charge of them, nor the customers that buy the trees 

 ' 1 true to name"; I only hope the latter may not be disap- 

 pointed. To make a selection from sixty varieties is bewildering 

 to many, yet I question whether this number is not exceeded by 

 all fruit-tree nurserymen of note in England. And it is to these 

 w T e should appeal to make a combined effort to reduce numbers by 

 refusing to catalogue any but varieties that are known to be good. 

 Granted that in varying soils, positions, and districts the quality 

 of Pears vary greatly, and sufficient margin as to numbers of 

 varieties is necessary to cope with these freaks. As to what the 

 lowest number should be I won't venture to suggest, lest I find 

 myself in a minority of one. 



But now as to the best varieties. In a short paper that I 

 read at the Apple and Pear Conference at Chiswick, a year ago, 

 I named twenty-five varieties that I considered best for dessert. 

 I do not see my way to erase any kinds mentioned in that list, 

 and I therefore reproduce it here. Their names are Souvenir du 

 Congres, Williams's Bon Chretien, Beurre d'Amanlis, Fondante 

 d'Automne, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Madame Treyve, Beurre 

 Hardy, Beurre Superfin, Seckle, Marie Louise, Doyenne du 

 Cornice, Thompson's, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Glou Morceau, 

 Winter Nelis, Comte de Lamy, Beurre Bachelier, Josephine de 

 Malines, Winter Crasanne, Huyshe's Victoria, Olivier de Serres, 

 Easter Beurre, Ne Plus Meuris, Knight's Monarch, and Berga- 

 motte d'Esperen. To this, list I now add the names of three 



