186 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
without depression. Flesh yellowish white, crisp and juicy, with a sugary and 
pleasant muscat flavour. 
A dessert Pear of ordinary quality, ripe in the middle of August, and con¬ 
tinues in use for about fourteen days. 
The tree attains a large size, and is a vigorous grower, a very abundant 
bearer, and thrives better on the pear than the quince. It is one of the earliest 
Pears, succeeding the Petit Muscat about eight days, but has the advantage 
over that variety in being larger and better flavoured. 
AUTUMN BERGAMOT— Switzer. 
Identification. —Switz. Fr. Gard. 117. Mill. Diet. n. 32. Lindl. Guide, 352. Hort. 
Soc. Cat. ed. 3. n. 30. Down Fr. Amer. 366. 
Synonymes. —Common Bergamot, Lang. Pom. 131. t. lxv. f. 1. English Bergamot, 
Gibs. Fr. Gard. 320. York Bergamot, Hort. Soc. Cat. ed. 1. n. 62. 
Figure. —Pom. Mag. t. 120. 
Fruit small, 2^- inches wide, and the same in depth; roundish and some¬ 
what depressed. Skin yellowish green, with dull brown on the side next the 
sun, and covered all over with rough grey russet specks. Eye small and open. 
set in a shallow basin. Stalk half 
an inch long, stout, inserted in a 
wide, round, and even cavity. Flesh 
greenish white, slightly gritty at 
the core, but otherwise tender, 
melting, juicy, and richly flavoured. 
An old dessert Pear of the first 
quality, ripe in October. The tree 
is a vigorous grower and hardy, 
forms a handsome standard, and 
is a most abundant bearer. It 
succeeds well either on the pear 
or quince. 
It has been stated by Switzer, 
and by some subsequent writers 
evidently on his authority, that 
the Autumn Bergamot “ has been 
an inhabitant of our island ever 
since the time that Julius Cmsar 
conquered it. Possibly it was the 
Assyrian Pear of Virgil (Quod a 
Syria translata faisset ), say some commentators, and was, as may be deduced 
from thence, part of the furniture of the once celebrated and famous gardens 
of Alcinous.” As this can be only conjecture on the part of Switzer, and un¬ 
supported by any well-founded evidence, I think it extremely improbable. It 
is rather singular, notwithstanding this statement, that he is the first English 
author who mentions it. It is not noticed in the lists of Rea, Worledge, or 
Evelyn, nor in the very comprehensive enumeration of Leonard Meager, of the 
fruits which were cultivated in the London nurseries in 1688. Neither is it 
even mentioned by Rea, Ralph Austin, Parkinson, nor William Lawson, and, 
indeed, by no author is it recorded prior to Switzer himself. Parkinson speaks 
of the Winter Bergamot as “ of two or three sorts, being all of them small fruit, 
somewhat greener on the outside than the summer kindes ; all of them very 
delicate and good in their due time; so some will not be fit to bee eaten when 
others are well-nigh spent, every of them outlasting another by a moneth or 
more.” But of the Autumn Bergamot we have no early record. 
