I5O THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



DOUGLAS 



i. Kan. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 63. 1908-09. 2. Rural N. Y. 70:59, fig. 24. 1911. 3. U. S. D.A. Year- 

 book 267, PI. 4. 1912. 4. Rural N. Y. 72:458, fig. 146. 1913. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 41, 42. 1915. 



In regions where blight and heat make pear-growing precarious, and 

 only pears with oriental blood, as Kieffer, Garber, and Le Conte, can be 

 grown, Douglas, which belongs with the pears just named, might well be 

 tried. Certainly it is better in flavor than any other variety of its class. 

 The trees come in bearing remarkably early, and are as productive as those 

 of Kieffer, though hardly as large or as vigorous. The trees are inclined to 

 overbear, in which case the fruits run small. The variety has little to 

 recommend it for New York, but those who grow Kieffer might put it on 

 probation with the hope of growing a fruit passably fair for dessert. 



Douglas is a seedling of Kieffer crossed, it is believed, with Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme by O. H. Ayer, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, about 

 the year 1897. It fruited first in 1902 and attracted the attention of A. H. 

 Griesa, also of Lawrence, who propagated it in 1907, and sent out speci- 

 mens of it for appraisement in October, 1910, when it was very favorably 

 reported on by many prominent horticulturists. In accordance with Mr. 

 Griesa's suggestion, it was named Douglas after the county of its origin. 



Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, very productive; trunk slender, smooth; 

 branches slender, dull brownish-red, mottled with gray scarf-skin; branchlets medium in 

 thickness and length, smooth, glabrous, sprinkled with numerous raised, conspicuous 

 lenticels. Leaf -buds large, long, pointed, plump, free; leaf -scars prominent. Leaves 

 3i in. long, i^ in. wide, thick; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless, finely and shallowly 

 serrate; petiole if in. long. Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free; flowers i; in. 

 across, white or occasionally with a faint tinge of pink, n or 12 buds in a cluster; pedicels 

 if in. long. 



Fruit matures in October; large, 3^ in. long, 25 in. wide, obovate-pyriform, tapering 

 at both ends like the Kieffer; stem if in. long, slender; cavity deep, narrow, compressed, 

 often lipped; calyx small, partly open; basin furrowed; skin thick, tough; color pale yellow, 

 heavily dotted and sometimes flecked with russet; dots numerous, small, light russet or 

 greenish; flesh tinged with yellow, firm but tender, granular, very juicy, sweet yet with an 

 invigorating flavor; quality good. Core closed, axile; calyx-tube short, wide; seeds long, 

 plump, acute. 



DOYENNfi D'ALEN^ON 



i. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 213. 1856. 2. Ibid. 231. 1858. 3. Ann. Pom. Beige 8:15, PI. 1860. 4. 

 Pom. France 2: No. 47, PI. 47. 1864. 5. Mas Le Verger 1:23, fig. 10. 1866-73. 6. Downing Fr. Trees 

 Am. 742. 1869. 7. Leroy Diet. Pom. 2:55, fig. 1869. 8. Jour. Hort. N. S. 20:135. 1871. 9. Guide 

 Prat. 61, 264. 1876. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 564. 1884. 



Marmorirte Schmalzbirne. n. Dochnahl Fuhr. Obstkunde 2:65. 1856. 



Dechantsbirne von Alen ( on. 12. Mathieu Norn. Pom. 201. 1889. 



