218 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
bodied many particulars concerning it in an article ‘‘ On certain 
small-fruited Pears.’ From this I extract the following: ‘‘ My 
own attention was drawn to this form from the circumstance that 
the eminent archeologist, Dr. Phené, sought my assistance in the 
determination of a small-fruited Pyrus which he had found in 
Brittany. This I had no difficulty in identifying with the Pyrus 
cordata of Desveaux. According to Decaisne, the form just men- 
tioned, which is found in Anjou and Brittany, is the same with a 
species found in North-east Persia, on Mount Elbruz, by Buhse, 
and elsewhere in the same region by other collectors. The Persian 
form was originally called Boissiertana by Buhse, but it is de- 
scribed under the name P. cordata, Desv., in Boissier’s Flora 
Orientalis.” In proceeding with his article, Dr. Masters refers 
to the previous one in the Gardener’s Chronicle, from which he 
cites the following passages, embodying the views of Dr. Phené 
concerning these Pears: ‘‘Dr. Phené visited Brittany to trace 
practically any connection, if such could be found, between the 
legends which connect the ‘Isle of Apples’ of Arthurian repute 
with that locality, and those which connect it with Britain. King 
Arthur, it appears, is supposed to have been buried either in the 
Island of Avalon (Glastonbury), in England, or in that of Aiguillon, 
in Armorica, the equivalent of Isle of Avalon being Isle of Apples. 
An island in Loch Awe, in Argyllshire, has a Celtic legend con- 
taining the principal features of Arthurian story, but in this case 
the word is ‘berries’ instead of apples. These particulars were 
fully given in a paper, read on June 10th, 1875, by Dr. Phené 
before the Royal Historical Society, in which he expressed a belief 
that the legend of the mystical Arthur was derived from the 
character of Arjuna, given in the Indian poem, ‘Maha Barata.’ 
After closely examining the island in Loch Awe, and Avalon in 
Somersetshire, he concluded his researches by a visit to Armorica, 
Brittany. He there observed a tree which helped him to the 
apples of Avalon and the berries of Loch Awe, for the apples on 
the tree were berries. The specimen he has submitted to us is the 
Pyrus cordata of Desveaux, and it is interesting to note, in support 
of Dr. Phené’s argument, that it has been found in Western France 
—perhaps in South-western England, if the plant found by Mr. 
Briggs, near Plymouth, and called by Dr. Boswell-Syme Pyrus 
communis var. Briggsi, be the same—and nowhere else in Kurope. 
Both countries had their shores occupied, anterior to the invasion 
