'I
THE JARGONELLE PEAR.
Jargonelle o f most English Writers, but not o f Miller. Hort.
Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 353.
Epargne. Hort. Cat. no. 256.
Grosse Cuisse Madame . . .
Beau Present .................
Saint Lambert .....................
Saint Samson ......................
Poire des Tables des Princes
o f French Writers and Gardeners.
Every body knows the Jargonelle, the queen of
Autumn Pears, unequalled in flavour, and unrivalled
in productiveness by any of its season.
We can have little to say upon it which will be
either new or interesting.
Its name is derived, according to Ménage and
Duchat, from Jargon, anciently Gergon, in Italian
Gergo, in Spanish Gericonga, all corruptions of
Gracum; whence Merlet infers, that the Jargonelle
was the Pyrum Tarentinum of Cato and Columella,
the Numidianum Gracum of Pliny, and the Grce-
culum of Macrobius. If this conjecture be well
founded, the kind to which the name belongs will
be one of the most ancient in cultivation.
To this country it was certainly brought from
France, of which there is abundant evidence. The
Jargonelle of the French is, however, not ours, but
an inferior kind, green on one side and red on
the other. They call ours the Grosse Cuisse Madame,
distinguishing it from the common Cuisse
rnl
j
MiJli