122 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER IV 



LEADING VARIETIES OF PEARS 



ANDRE DESPORTES 



I. Leroy Diet. Pom. 1:127, fig. 1867. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 3:51, fig. 122. 1878. 3. Cat. Cong. Pom. 

 France 138, fig. 1906. 



This old French sort is sparingly grown in New York, and is still listed 

 by a few American nurserymen. The pears are handsome and very good in 

 quality, but they quickly soften at the center and neither keep nor ship 

 well. While usually of medium size, or sometimes large, the pears often 

 run small. The variety is well worth planting in a collection, but has no 

 value in a commercial plantation, and there are many better sorts for home 

 orchards. 



The parent tree of this variety grew in the seed beds of M. Andre 

 Leroy, the well-known authority on pomology, at Angers, France. M. 

 Leroy obtained it in 1854 from pips of Williams' Bon Chretien, or as it 

 is better known here, the Bartlett pear. He named it after the son of 

 M. Baptiste Desportes, manager of the business department of his estab- 

 lishment. The vigor and high quality of the fruit were quickly appreciated, 

 and the variety was soon disseminated far and wide. 



Tree characteristically upright and vigorous, rapid-growing, hardy, productive; 

 branches slender, smooth, light brown overlaid with thin, grayish scarf-skin, marked with 

 small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, with short internodes, reddish-brown, slightly 

 streaked toward the tips with ash-gray scarf-skin, dull, smooth, glabrous, with numerous 

 small, but very conspicuous, raised lenticels. 



Leaf -buds large, pointed, plump, appressed. Leaves 2f in. long, if in. wide, ovate, 

 stiff, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandular, slightly crenate; petiole i^ in. long. 

 Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds or on short 

 spurs; flowers showy, ij in. across, occasionally tinged pink, in dense clusters, averaging 

 9 flowers per cluster; pedicels f in. long, thick, pubescent. 



Fruit ripe in August; medium in size, 25 in. long, z\ in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, 

 symmetrical, uniform; stem i in. long, thick, curved; cavity obtuse, shallow, dotted with 

 russet, often lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acute; 

 basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; 

 color dull greenish-yellow, dotted and marbled with reddish-brown, blushed on the sunny 

 side; dots numerous, small, light colored, obscure; flesh tinged with yellow, fine, tender and 

 melting, buttery, juicy, sweet, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, with 

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



