THE TRUE ST. GERMAIN PEAR.

The following account of the true, and spurious varieties of the St. Germain Pear, was sent, with some grafts of the true variety, to the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY by Mr. ANDREW KNIGHT; and is copied, by permission, from their Transactions.

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MERLET, who wrote in the latter end of the seventeenth century, has described two varieties of the Pear, which were at that period confounded under the name of the St. Germain; and Du Hamel has admitted the accuracy of MERLET's account*. These varieties so closely resemble each other, in their wood, their buds, their foliage, and blossoms, that it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other; and there is also much similarity in the external character of their fruit. Both varieties are known in this country; but I have seen one only sent from the nurseries round London, and that the inferior or spurious kind: I have, therefore, sent a few grafts of the true St. Germain, under the hope that they may prove acceptable to some Members of the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

" The spurious variety ripens in December, and the fruit grown

* Traité des Arbres Fruitiers.

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in my garden here, and in other gardens of this neighbourhood, remains green when ripe, and generally decays before the end of January; and, if the soil and season be not favourable, it is watery and insipid. The form of the spurious variety, as Du HAMEL has remarked, is less long, and subject to much more variation than that of the true variety. The true St. Germain remains in perfection till the latter end of March, and may be easily preserved until April, and is amongst the very best of Winter Pears." -HORT. TRANS. Vol. I. p. 226.