PLATE XXXIV. 
Eye : very large, set in a rather deep basin. Stalk : an inch long, inserted in a small cavity. 
Flesh : red, crisp, juicy, with a sweet and rather insipid flavour. 
An early dessert pear; ripe in August and September, chiefly remarkable for the colour of 
its flesh. 
The tree is healthy and vigorous, and bears well as a standard. It succeeds either on the 
pear or Quince Stock. Its red flesh creates for it almost a superstitious reverence in country 
districts, and certainly ensures for it a degree of favour beyond its merits as a dessert fruit. 
4. ASTON TOWN. 
This very favourite pear takes its name from the towm of Aston, in Cheshire, but the 
definite history of its origin is nowhere to be found. It is well figured in Hooker’s “ Pomona 
Londinensis ,” pi. 18, and in the “ Pomological Magazine ,” pi. 139. 
Description. —Fruit: rather below medium size, two inches and a half wide, and the same in 
height ; roundish obovate. Skin : rather rough, pale green at first, but changing, as it ripens, to 
pale yellow, and thickly covered with brown russet spots. Eye : small, nearly closed, and set in a 
small shallow basin. Stalk : an inch and a half long, slender, and without depression, and w r ith 
a swollen lip on one side of it. Flesh : yellowish white, tender and buttery, with a rich sugary and 
perfumed flavour, very much resembling, and even equalling that of the Crasanne. 
A dessert pear of the first quality, and one of the most valuable of our native varieties. It 
