December 3), 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
575 
metal.” Of metals generally we have nothing to do, but as your 
correspondent’s remarks are outside the facts, you may allow me to say 
a few words regarding the oxidation. Oxides of iron and manganese 
occur native and in a pure state. Oxides of others are procured by burn¬ 
ing them in oxygen, or by heating the hydrate with the salt of the metal, 
or heating the metal with other substances capable of affording oxygen, 
such as potassic nitrite or chlorate, and by other mean=, but in all heat is 
invaiiably necessary to tne rapid oxidation. Although iron will oxidise 
in a cold state, no chemist would adopt that method to obtain its oxide 
when it could be procured more quickly by making it red hot. And it is 
due to the rapid oxidation of red hot iron that chemists are able to 
accomplish some practical results. For instance, it is one of the methods 
employed in the preparation of hydrogeD. A current of steam is passed 
through a red hot iron tube filled with iron borings, the iron takes up all 
the oxygen, and the hydrogen can be collected over the pneumatic 
trough. 
Mr. Burton’s illustrative experiment, which he meant to go to prove 
that red hot iron did not oxidise when in contact with water, was only an 
experiment half completed. Had he placed the piece which had been red 
hot and submerged in water on the blacksmith’s anvil, and applied a 
hammer t@ it, he would have found little black scales fall from it, such as 
are seen around the anvil in every blacksmith’s shop. These black scales 
are oxidised pieces of iron, and are known to the chemist as magnetic 
oxide of iron. I would give equations, but few would understand them 
who have not studied chemistry. 
As to the “ boiler and bars set but not in use ” not lasting longer than 
one constantly at work, is a statement I cannot reconcile to facts. Seeing 
that iron will not oxidise in perfectly dry air, it is simply a question of 
the amount of aqueous vapour, or water, that may reach them, which will 
determine the period they will remain sound. Under ordinary circumstances 
they will see out a few of those in constant use.— J. Kiddell, Buncombe 
Park. 
PEARS. 
[A lecture by Mr. T. Francis Rivers.] 
I have been asked to give some account of what I know 
about Pears. There is, of course, much to be said about a fruit 
which more than any other attracts the attention of the cultivated 
pomologist from the extraordinary development it has attained 
m our own time, the ancients having been contented with fruit 
certainly unequal in flavour to that which we enjoy. M Andre 
Leroy, in his dictionary of pomology, has taken the trouble to 
make very learned researches into antique Pears, and enumerates 
four Greek and thirty-five sorts of ancient Rome; but he does 
not fix the time when these ceased to be catalogued, and gives 
only twelve sorts of Italian Pears between the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, the varieties cultivated in Prance from 
Charlemagne to Louis XIII. numbering 260 kinds. 
The Latin author Pliny names twenty kinds. Varro, Palla- 
dius, Cato, Columella, and Virgil are also pomologists and 
amateurs of Pears. The latter is very urgent in the matter of 
grafting Pears, but ’seems to have been aware of the modern 
axiom that “he who plants Pears, plants for his heirs;” his 
version being “Insere, Daphni, piros, ccirpent taa poma repotes.” 
Palladius recommends grafting the Apple on the Pear. The 
results were probably disastrous to the orchardist, and the 
practice was no doubt soon discontinued. 
Pear trees are supposed to be indicated in the twenty-third 
verse of the fifth chapter of the second book of Samuel, but the 
word is more generally held to apply to the Mulberry. Dr. Karl 
Koch, writing to M. Andre Leroy in 1865, says, “ I am certain, 
now that I have passed several years in the thinly populated 
countries of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia, 
that all the European Pears are species become wild in our 
forests, and that in no case are they indigenous.” 
In 1665 John Rea, gent, published the “Flora, Ceres, and 
Pomona,” in which he gives a list of twenty one Pears described 
as being very good, one of them rejoicing in the extraordinary 
name of the “ Dead Man’s Pear.” He describes the Winter Bon 
Chretien as one of the most excellent, but requiring to be grafted 
on the Quince stock and trained to a wall. He also says, “ that 
there are several good sorts of Wardens and baking Pears ” In 
1693 John Evelyn published a translation of the works of 
Monsieur de la Quintinye, a very voluminous, exact, and twad¬ 
dling French author. In advising the setting out of a plantation 
of dwarf Pear trees, he begins with the choice of a dwarf tree to 
be planted alone— i.e., the “ Winter Bon Chretien,’' giving several 
reasons for this preference. “1, Because of its antiquity, and that 
by its singular excellence it gained the admiration and courtship 
of the world, the great monarchies, and principally that of old 
Rotne having known and cultivated it under the name of Crus- 
tumium. 2, It was baptised at the very birth of Christianity 
itself’ and consequently it should have the venera’ion of all 
Christian gardeners. 3, It should be considered of itself and 
with respect only to its own proper merit, which can alone entitle 
R to a preference.” This is at all events a very proper decision 
to arrive at, but the Winter Bon Chretien has not kept the high 
rank assigned to it. De la Quintinye indulges in the most extrava¬ 
gant expressions of esteem, “ That it grows to the weight of 2 lbs., 
that it is considered a handsome present to persons of quality, 
and that it is a Pear the beauty of which has caused the ablest 
gardeners to labour for it with the greatest passion.” I have had 
a good experience of Pears, but 1 have never known this precious 
Pear except by mine, but it may have degenerated, or we of the 
present time are more particular in our tastes. Of the other 
varieties named by Mons. de la Quintinye, the Autumn Bergamot, 
the St. Germain, the Colmar, and Crassanne have survived to 
our own time, but without holding rank as first class fruit; he, 
however, highly commends the Beurre Rouge, classing this as a 
synonym of the Beurre d’Amboise and Isambert, which he says, 
“ possesses the first degree of goodness—viz., a smooth delicious 
softness with a fine delicate pulp,” wasting many good epithets 
on the Winter Bon Chretien, which would have been more pro¬ 
perly applied to the Beurre Rou e. The Autumn Bergamot is 
not highly commended, although our friend says, “that it has a 
numerous and formidable party, and, indeed, that a thousand 
people assert that for its tender and melting pulp, its sweet and 
sugary juice, and the little smack of perfume which accompanies 
it, that is more valuable than all other Pears in general,” remarks 
which a great many ignorant people make at the present day. 
De la Quintinye names some ninety or hundred sorts of which 
some of the names are expressive, as “Greedy Guts,” “Chew 
Good,” “ Daughter of God,” or “ Fille Dieu.” Some few of the 
sorts remain, among them the Rousse’ets, Chaumoutel, and St. 
Lezin. De la Quintinye’s reasons for the enjoyment of Pears 
are curious. He states that “ the rigorous cold which lasts from 
November to March enjoins our placing ourselves neai the fire, 
and that to counteract the external foreign heat then taken in, 
Nature has provided us with Pears to prevent the great infir¬ 
mities which might happen to us from the enjoyment of so much 
heat. So precisely at this time she has given us an admirable 
quantity of tender fruit, such as Bergamots, Louise Bonnes, Les 
Chasseries, Araberts, Yirgoulees, Epines, and St. Augustines ” 
This garrulous author provides for the plantation of a thousand 
trees, but states that “the planter of so many would be a 
curious gentleman, for how could he dispose of 12,000 Pears 
unless he gave them away or made perry of them ? ” This diffi¬ 
culty would not be felt now. He concludes his remarks on 
Pears by a list of fifty good, forty-four indifferent, and sixty-six 
bad sorts. 
In 1729 Batty Langley, in the “ Pomona,” gives the names 
of fifty-seven Pears Those which are named by him and still 
cultivated are the Brown Beurre, Autumn Bergamot, Hampden’s 
ditto, Crassanne, Epine d’Hiver, Jargonelle, Swan’s Egg, and 
Windsor, and among baking Pears the Black Pear of Worcester 
and Catillac. Mr. Langley is not enthusiastic about Pears. 
Switzer enumerates eighty Pears, advising the planting of the 
English Bergamot, “ because of its goodness and antiquity, it 
being not impossible that it has been an inhabitant of this 
island ever since Julius Caesar conquei'ed it, and that possibly it 
was the Assyrian Pear of Virgil, and was, as may be deduced 
from this, a part of the celebrated Gardens of Alcinous.” A 
tree of this sort in the Sawbridgeworth Nurseries is said to be 
300 years old. The Pears selected by Switzer appear certainly 
to have been the best of that time, and* he testifies to the extreme 
goodness of the Winter Bon Chretien. 
Philip Miller, in his “Gardeners’ Dictionary,” 1759, begins 
his list with Petit Muscat, and passes on to the Chio, Citron des 
Cannes, La Bellissime, bearing two crops in July and September, 
Jargonelle, and Cuisse Madame. The Cuisse Madame of the 
French is classed as a good Pear, and the Jargonelle as third 
rate; but Mons. Leroy describes the Cuisse Madame as a small 
inferior Pear ripening about the end of August, considering it as 
one of the few historical Greek Pears which have come down to 
us. The Poire d’l pargne or Jargonelle of Andrf 5 Leroy does not 
correspond with the o ffline of our Jargonelle, and he does not 
praise the fruit, calling it pood only for the Eeason. Our true 
En.lish Jargonelle when ripened on a wall is exceeding good, 
juicy, and refreshing. Probably the spurious Jargonelle, which 
undoubtedly exists, has been introduced by those who have 
imported this sort from France, having been misled by the name, 
not being aware that the Jargonelle of the French nurseries is 
not the kind which passes under that name with us. Leroy says 
that Miller has muddled the Jargonelle, and that the confusion 
caused by him has lasted to our own time, the mischief arising 
from the Jargonelle and Cuisse Madame being classed by Mills 
as synonymous. , 
Miller names eighty sorts, and states that he has included in 
his list many sorts that are not worth planting to please those 
who are fond of a great variety. He is aware of the eccentricity 
