THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 1 63 



brownish, minute specks; dots numerous, very small, conspicuous, russet or brown; flesh 

 tinged with yellow, slightly granular imder the skin, strongly granular at the center, tender 

 and melting, very juicy, sweet, vinous, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, 

 with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds wide, plump, acute. 



FLEMISH BEAUTY 



I. Pom. Mag. 3:128, PI. 1830. 2. Lindley Guttf e Orch. Card. 373. 1831. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 

 386, fig. 167. 1845. 4. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr.Cr. 51. 1848. 5. Hovey Fr. y4m. 1:51, PI. 1851. 6. Down- 

 ing Fr. Trees Am. 760, fig. 1869. 7. Kogg Fruit Man. $78. 1884. 



Belle de Flanders. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 172. 1832. 



Fondante des Bois. g. Ann. Pom. Beige 6:^1, Ph 1858. 10. Pom. France i: No. 25, PI. 25. 1863. 

 II. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 2, 55, fig. 124. 1866-73. 12. Leroy Diet. Pom. 2:166, fig. 1869. 13. Guide 

 Prat. 58, 272. 1876. 14. Soc. Nat. Hart. France Pom. 412, fig. 1904. 



Holzfarbige Butterbirne. 15. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 235. 1889. 16. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 

 49, PI. 38. 1894. 



At one time Flemish Beauty was a leading commercial variety in the 

 pear regions of eastern America, but it has been supplanted by other varieties 

 because the toll of blighted trees is too great, and the fruits are too often 

 disfigured by the scab fungus. Perhaps the latter is the greater fault as 

 in some seasons no applications of spray give the pears a clean cheek, and 

 they are blackened, scabbed, cracked and malformed with this fimgus. 

 Not infrequently the scab-infected foliage drops before the crop matures. 

 To offset these defects, the trees have to their credit great vigor, unusual 

 fruitftilness and as great hardihood to cold as those of any other variety. 

 The trees do not come in bearing early, and are not suitable for dwarfing as 

 they overgrow the quince stock. The fruits are nearly perfect if scab-free 

 and properly matured. To make sure of perfect maturity, the pears must 

 be picked as soon as they attain full size and be permitted to ripen under 

 cover. So treated, a bright-cheeked Flemish Beauty is as handsome as 

 any pear, and is almost tinapproachable in quality; the flavor is nicely 

 balanced between sweetness and sourness, very rich, and has a pleasing 

 muskiness. Blight and scab condemn tree and fruit for commercial orchards, 

 but a lover of good pears should combat these troubles for the sake of the 

 choice fruits. 



The parent tree of this variety is said to have been .a wilding f ovind in 

 a wood near Alost, East Flanders, Belgitim, about the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century. It was cultivated under the Flemish name of Bosc 

 Peer or Pear of the Woods. About 1810, the propagation of the variety 

 was taken up by Van Mons who introduced it a few years later under the 

 name Fondante des Bois by which name it was known in Europe for many 

 years. Lindley, writing in 1831, described this variety under the name 



