cording to its strength. As the plants grow up, they should be trained with single stems of eighteen inches or two feet high, which will allow room to clear away any suckers the plants may afterwards produce. When the plants are finally planted out where they are intended to remain, care must be taken, by annual pruning, to form their heads handsomely; keeping them thin and open; cutting away all irregular, superfluous, vigorous shoots; and removing any suckers which may spring up, observing, at the same time, not to injure the roots.

Pruning and Training.

As soon, as the plant is established, some pains should be taken to form its head, which may be done in a similar manner to that recommended for Gooseberries and Currants.

If it is intended to keep the plant under a regular system of pruning, it must be kept low, so that its upper part may be reached by standing on the ground, both for the purpose of pruning and of gathering the fruit.

The head must be kept thin, shortening the leading shoots to nine or twelve inches, and cutting out such other strong ones that would otherwise encumber the head. Besides these, there will be also produced from the two and three years' branches, annually, short twigs of six or nine inches in length, which generally bear a great many nuts the following year; these should be thinned out, but not shortened, leaving them in tolerable quantity wherever they are produced, cutting them clean out the following winter, and leaving others in the same manner as those had been left the previous season.

in

In the county of Kent, Nuts are better managed than any other part of England, and their produce is not

only greater, but of a superior quality. The bushes are pruned much in the manner I have described; and I have observed that they seldom exceed six feet, and a great many are not more than five; their branches are wide apart, and the middle of the bushes extremely open.

There are some, probably, who may object to the trouble, or who may find it inconvenient to prune their Nut trees in the regular way: should this be the case, something still may be done to prevent their running into a wild state. They may be looked over, for the first two or three years, till their heads have been formed with some degree of regularity, and they may then be suffered to grow at length; but, even then, it can take up but little time, and, consequently, cause but little expense, in having them looked over once a year, during the winter, to clear away the suckers from the roots, and to thin out the heads where the branches are crowding or galling each other; remembering that, where the heads are crowded with wood, the crop is always defective, except near the extremities; and where they are kept thin, it is abundant.

CHAP. XVI.

PEARS.

As many of the French and Flemish Pears succeed well when grafted upon the quince stock, all such as have been ascertained to possess this property will be noticed at the end of the descriptions.

SECT. I.— Summer. Round-fruited.

1. AMBROSIA.

Switzer, p. 113.

Early Beurré. Hort. Soc. Cat. No. 13.

Fruit middle-sized, of a roundish and somewhat flattened figure. Eye rather sunk. Stalk an inch long, slender, and a little bent. Skin smooth, greenish yellow, and full of small grey specks. Flesh tender, with a rich, sugary, and perfumed juice.

Ripe the middle of September.

This Pear was brought from France soon after the Restoration, and planted in the Royal Gardens in St. James's Park. It is a very good pear, but will not keep long.

2. BERGAMOTTE ROUGE. Duhamel, No. 46. t. 19. f. 6.

Fruit below the middle size, shortly turbinate, about two inches deep, and two and a quarter inches in diameter. Eye rather flat. Stalk half an inch long, thick, and inserted in a small cavity. Skin pale yellow, but of a red colour on the sunny side. Flesh soft, melting, and full of a sugary and highly-flavoured juice. Ripe the middle of September.

This succeeds on both the quince and the pear stock. 3. EARLY BERGAMOT. Pom. Mag. t. 101.

Fruit middle-sized, roundish, flattened, depressed at the eye, towards which it is slightly angular, about two and a half inches long, and two and three-quarters inches in diameter. Stalk one and a quarter inch long, moderately thick, inserted in a shallow cavity. Skin green, with a tinge of yellow when ripe, with a few faint streaks of brownish red on the sunny side. Flesh yellowish white, very juicy, a little crisp and gritty, but very rich and sugary.

Ripe the end of August and beginning of September. This Pear was sent into this country by the late M. Thouin, to the Horticultural Society, in 1820, where its present name has originated. It is a most excellent variety of its season, bears abundantly as an open standard, and deserves cultivation.

4. EARLY ROUSSELET. Nursery Catalogues, Rousselet Hâtif. Duhamel, No. 33.

Perdreau. Ib.

Poire de Chypre. Ib.

Fruit rather small, of a somewhat turbinate figure, about two inches long, and nearly the same in diameter. Eye small, and sunk in a shallow basin. Stalk one inch long. Skin smooth, yellow, of a lively red with several grey specks interspersed on the sunny side, Flesh tender, with an agreeable sugary perfumed Juice. Ripe the beginning and middle of August.

This succeeds on the quince as well as the pear stock. 5. FONDANTE DE BREST. Duhamel, No. 43. t. 17. Inconnu Chêneau.

Ib.

Fruit middle-sized, slightly turbinate, but tapering both to the stalk and the crowm, about two and a half inches long, and two and a quarter inches in diameter. Eye small, with a connivent calyx, seated on the narrowed apex, without any basin. Stalk one and a half inserted without any

inch long, slender, a little bent, cavity. Skin thin, smooth, and shining, of a bright green, with a few grey specks, marbled with pale brown, and shaded with red on the sunny side. Flesh white, firm, and crisp, but not melting, except when past its best, although it has obtained a name to this effect. Juice sweet, with an agreeable flavour.

Ripe the end of August and beginning of September. This never succeeds well on the quince.

6. GREEN CHISEL. Langley, t. 62. f. 2. Green Chisel. Forsyth, Ed. 7. No. 3.

Fruit small, nearly globular, about one inch and a quarter across each way. Eye large in proportion to the size of the fruit, prominently placed, with an open crumpled calyx. Stalk three quarters of an inch long, straight, inserted without any cavity. Skin quite green all round; but sometimes, when fully exposed, it has a

faint brownish tinge on the sunny side. Flesh gritty. Juice a little sugary, with a slight perfume.

Ripe the beginning to the middle of August.

This little Pear is common throughout England. It does not appear to have been noticed among the French writers, and is probably of English origin. It is readily known by its growing in clusters, and by the branches being short, and growing erect. It is a small growing tree, and bears abundantly.

7. MUSK DRONE. Miller, No. 15.

Bourdon Musqué. Duhamel, No. 27.

Fruit rather small, of a roundish figure, a little flattened at the crown, somewhat like an orange, about one inch and a half each way. Eye rather large, placed in a wide hollow basin. Stalk one inch and a quarter long, straight, slender.

melting, with a rich juice.

Skin yellow. Flesh white,

8. MUSK ROBINE. Miller, No. 14.

Muscat Robert. Duhamel, No. 3. t. 2.

Pucelle de Saintonge. Knoop. Pom. p. 137.

La Princesse.

Queen's Pear.

Ib.

Forsyth, Ed. 3. No. 14.

Fruit below the middle size, turbinate, but rounded at the stalk, about two inches deep, and one inch and three quarters in diameter. Eye open, with a flat spreading calyx. Stalk an inch long, bent, inserted without any cavity. Skin smooth, yellowish green, with a few grey specks interspersed. Flesh tender, between melting and breaking, with a rich musky juice.

Ripe the end of July and beginning of August.

This grows strong on the pear, middling on the quince.