14 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
justly reckoned one of the finest, if not the finest winter Pear ; but, singularly 
enough, wh\en grown in the southern counties of England it loses entirely its 
good properties. It is evidently one of those fruits that require to be grown 
and ripened gradually, for in the south where it acquires much greater 
dimensions than it does in the north, the flesh is pasty and insipid, and the 
fruit does not last beyond the middle part of October. Oar figures represent 
these two forms of the Pear, No. 1 being the fruit as it is produced in Scotland, 
and No. 2 as grown in England, and that is from a small specimen; but it will 
be observed that in shape as well as size it. equally differs. I have seen this 
variety grown in some of the cold and exposed parts of England in great per¬ 
fection, as from Delamere Forest in Cheshire, and some parts of Yorkshire. 
Now that so many new varieties of Pears have been introduced of late 
years, our northern gardeners are not so shut up to the Achan as their 
ancestors were, and it has now to encounter many a formidable rival. But the 
time was when this variety was with them the very ideal of a winter Pear, 
to which nothing could even approach. Some years ago, before the railways 
were established, a Scotch gardener of the old school set out from a northern 
port by sailing-smack on a visit to London. Being a man in easy circumstances, 
a little adventurous, and of an inquiring mind, he wanted to extend his know¬ 
ledge and see how gardening was managed in the south. This good man was 
one of the old school even in those days, and had formed his own notions of 
things. His attire consisted of the time-honoured blue coat, with large yellow 
buttons, yellow waistcoat, and his nether garments and leggings were drab. He 
carried a stout umbrella, which like himself was inclined to corpulency. 
Among the places which this good man visited was the Chiswick Garden, and 
being in the autumn he was introduced to the fruit-room. His attendant 
