THE CRASANNE PEAR.

The Crasanne Pear, or the Bergamot Crasanne, appears to have been cultivated in the time of DE LA QUINTYNIE, and is figured by DU HAMEL, who describes it as a fruit the merit of which is universally known.

The tree is of free growth and fertile habit; its young shoots slender, pale greyish brown, minutely dotted. Leaves from 2 to 3 inches in length, and about 1 to 11⁄2 inches in width, broad and roundish at the base, and attenuated to a point at the other extremity, folded or wrinkled towards the margin, slightly serrated. Fruit roundish, turbinated, frequently 2 to 21⁄2 inches in length, and of the same dimension in width near the eye; tapered a little towards the stalk, which is long, dark brown, curved, and inserted sometimes on the base of the fruit, or in a very shallow cavity. Skin pale dull green, with a good deal of russet, changing, when ripe, to a still paler colour, with a faint tinge of yellow on the side next the sun: the whole surface is sprinkled over with a mixture of dark green and brown spots. The eye is rather small, black, inserted in a broad deep cavity. Flesh very fine, buttery and melting, abundantly charged with juice, which is sweet, and delicately perfumed.

This excellent Pear usually ripens in November, and may be preserved a month or more: it is not subject to become mealy, and generally decays first externally. A variety called by some ingenious cultivators the Little Crasanne, which ripens later, and is superior to the one now described, the Author hopes to be enabled to treat fully of in a subsequent Number.