1881.] 
PEAR DES DEUX SCEURS.-ELEMENTS OF ORCHID-CULTURE. 
137 
look at the conditions under which the finest- 
flavoured fruit is obtained in naturally favoured 
situations, we shall find that is generally pro¬ 
duced by trees growing in a deep staple on 
a dry bottom, whereby a greater degree of 
warmth than is found in more retentive soils 
is ensured. Bearing this in mind, in forming a 
compost for the staple of the border of such 
materials as are most at command, say, of loam, 
road-scrapings, and rotten manure, we must so 
break it up and disintegrate it, by intermixing 
substances of a more permanent character, such 
as broken bones, lumps of charcoal, old 
mortar, and broken bricks, that it may per¬ 
manently retain a porous and elastic character 
such as may ensure warmth to the roots. This 
will be more obviously necessary, on account 
of the greater depth of the pear borders, as 
otherwise, in the course of time, there would 
be the risk of the soil becoming so much con¬ 
solidated as to prevent the free passage of 
water, thereby causing the retention of too 
much moisture, which would entirely militate 
against the acquisition of a fine flavour.— John 
Cox, JRedleaf. 
PEAR DES DEUX SGEURS. 
[Plate 
HEN fruited at Chiswick in the 
autumn of 1880, this Belgian Pear 
was found to be both distinct and 
good. We have to thank Mr. Barron for the 
sample here represented by Mr. Fitch, whose 
figure gives a very correct idea of its general 
character and appearance. The fruit is rather 
above medium size, and so greatly resembles 
in appearance and texture of flesh certain 
forms of Marie Louise, that it may easily be 
mistaken for that variety. It is of an elongate- 
obovate form, with a short, stout, obliquely- 
set stalk, and a small open or semi-closed eye. 
The skin is thin, golden-yellow, spotted with 
small greyish dots. The flesh is white, fine, 
and half-melting, with abundant slightly per¬ 
fumed sugary juice. The variety is very free- 
546.] 
fruiting on the Quince stock. It is in use 
towards the end of October, and in November. 
According to M. Leroy, Major Esperen has 
been sometimes, but incorrectly, regarded as 
the raiser of this Pear. He was. however, the first 
to report on it, at the request of the proprietors 
of the garden in which it appeared, the Mdlles. 
Knoop, of Malines, whence the name of “ the 
Two Sisters’ Pearvery singularly also, the 
fruits almost invariably grow in pairs. Its age is 
imperfectly known, but as Esperen died in 1847, 
it should count but little over thirty years. M. 
Decaisne does not consider this variety admissible 
among choice Pears, for though he constantly 
found it with very fine flesh, and juicy, it was 
almost without aroma, and M. Leroy was of the 
same opinion. At Chiswick it proved to be of 
very good quality, perhaps owing to its being 
better suited than some sorts to our cooler 
climate.—T. Moore. 
ELEMENTS OF 
Chapter II.— Temperature 
f WO great questions, pregnant with good 
or evil to the Orchid plant, are the tem¬ 
perature, and the system or routine of 
management to which it is subjected. No 
matter how well the cultivator may cater in 
respect to the material under which roots 
prosper and extend : if the temperature be 
wrong, all will be wrong together. This is the 
principal rock upon which growers, young and 
old, founder. It is surprising that it should 
be so, for a dry atmosphere—to a well-trained 
nose, at any rate—portends what is likely to 
happen. Of course, in a state of nature, 
certain Orchids bask in the occasional glare of 
a tropical sun, and although the plants look, as 
they must do, desiccated and yellow, the rainy 
ORCHID-CULTURE. 
and System of Management. 
season works upon them nothing less than a 
magical reformation. Now, to attempt this sort 
of thing in our artificial climate is sheer folly, 
ending invariably in defeat. In the first place, 
we dare not, although it were possible, imitate 
with impunity those extremely sunny, arid con¬ 
ditions ; and in the second place, we simply 
cannot imitate, even at a distance, those sudden 
out-bursts of stimulating power which are 
infused into the epiphytal plant on the re¬ 
turn of rains and dews. The heat of the 
earth and surrounding vegetation combine 
to give this moisture a potent influence on 
plant-life which, under the very best system 
of artificial culture, cannot be commanded. 
Hence the folly of imitating Nature too 
