270 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



large, true Bergamot shape, green changing to yellow at maturity; flesh white; fine, 

 buttery, sweet and well perfumed; Dec. 



Bergamotte d'Automne. i. Duhamel. Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:16$, PI. XXI. 1768. 2. Leroy 

 Did. Pom. 1:223, fig. 1S67. 



Rote Bergamotte. 3. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 271. 1889. 



Authorities fail to agree on the origin of this pear. Benedictus Ciirtius, a Florentine 

 author writing in 1536, thought it had birth at Bergamo in Lombardy. But in 1644, Jean 

 Bodaeus, a Dutch physician, in his translation of the Historia Plantarum of Theophrastus, 

 states that the Bergamote came from Asia, whence the Romans had imported it to Italy 

 and that it was known to them as the Pirum Regium or pear of Kings. If it originated in 

 Asia, the probability is that its birth-place was Pergamum, a village of Asia Minor between 

 the Mg&an and Marmora seas. This view was accepted in the eighteenth century by 

 such authorities as Lacour, Henri Manger and Menage, and later by Leroy. Fruit meditun; 

 variable but usually globular-oblate, greenish-yellow, dotted and striped with russet, 

 flesh whitish, fine, melting, generally gritty, sweet, savory; first; Oct. to Jan. 

 Bergamotte Bouvant. i. Guide Prat. 103. 1895. 



Listed as a new variety in 1895. Fruit medium; flesh fine, melting, juicy, well 

 sweetened and pleasantly perfumed; Apr. and May. 

 Bergamotte Bufo. i. Leroy D/rt. Pww. 1:228, fig. 1867. 2. HoggFnnV Maw. 498. 1884. 



Kroten Bergamotte. 3. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 244. 1889. 



Le Lectier says this pear was cultivated at Orleans in 1628 under the name of 

 Crapant or Toad on account of the rough character of its skin. It was also known in 

 Germany in 1690 under this latter name and as Oignon rosat by reason of its shape and 

 the perfume of its juice. In 1846 in France, because of the supposed inelegance of the 

 word "crapant," its name was changed to Bufo, the Latin name of a toad. Fruit above 

 medium, globular-oblate, even and regular like a true Bergamot; skin rough, dark yellow, 

 dotted and marbled with fawn and usually also bearing some large brown stains; flesh 

 white, melting, fine; juice sufficient, vinous, acidulous, sugary, savory, recalling the scent 

 of the rose; excellent dessert pear; late Oct. 



Bergamotte Bugi. i. Langley Pomona 131, PI. 46. 1729. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 5:9, fig. 

 293. 1880. 



Bergamote du Bugey. 3. Leroy Diet. Pom. 1:229, fig- 1867. 



This is a pear of ancient and uncertain origin. It has a large number of synonyms. 

 Claude Saint-Etienne, writing in 1660, and La Quintinye, in 1690, two of the best 

 describers of this pear, each called it by the name Bugi. Its synonym, Pera Spina, 

 attributed to Merlet, appears to indicate an Italian origin to it. Fruit medium and some- 

 times larger, globular-turbinate, generally very regular, clear olive-green, covered with 

 large, fawn dots intermingled with brownish patches; flesh yellowish-white, semi-melting, 

 semi-fine, seldom gritty; juice sufficient, sprightly, saccharine but occasionally acid, with 

 some perfume; second for dessert, first for cooking; Feb. to Apr. 

 Bergamotte de Coloma. i. Hogg Fruit Man. 499. 18S4. 



Fruit below mediimi, globular-obovate ; skin greenish -yellow, becoming bright yellow 

 when it ripens, and with a pale tinge of red on the side next the sun, the whole surface 



