THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



prove worthy of cultivation. No. 154 of these, Mr. Manning 1 named 

 Elizabeth (Van Mons). Later on it was disseminated as Manning's 

 Elizabeth, and soon after the name was shortened to Elizabeth. The 

 variety was placed in the fruit-list of the American Pomological Society in 

 1854. 



Tree small, upright, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; trunk slender; branches 

 brownish-green, partly overspread with thin, gray scarf-skin, marked by conspicuous, 

 oval lenticels; branchlets slender, long, reddish-brown mingled with green, new growth 

 exceptionally red, dull, smooth, glabrous except on the younger wood, with obscure, 

 raised lenticels. 



Leaf -buds small, short, pointed, plump, free. Leaves 3 in. long, i in. wide, stiff; apex 

 variable; margin almost entire; petiole 2 in. long, slender, reddish-green; stipules very small 

 and slender when present. Flower-buds small, short, conical, plump, free, singly on short 

 spurs; flowers early, showy, if in. across, in dense clusters, average 8 buds in a cluster; 

 pedicels i in. long, lightly pubescent. 



Fruit ripe in late August; small, 2| in. long, z\ in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, 

 symmetrical, uniform; stem i in. long, thick, curved; cavity acuminate, shallow, narrow, 

 symmetrical, often lipped; calyx large, almost closed; lobes separated at the base, short, 

 narrow, acuminate; basin shallow, obtuse, gently furrowed and wrinkled; skin tough, 

 characteristically rough, glossy; color bright yellow, with a lively, red cheek, mottled with 



1 The fame of Robert Manning as an accurate and discriminating American pomologist will long 

 endure. Few Americans, one conceives, as his life is reviewed, have rendered greater service in any field 

 of the nation's agriculture. The quantity of his work was not remarkably large, but the quality was 

 superfine. Systematic pomology in particular owes him much for his painstaking descriptions of fruits, 

 and his corrections in nomenclature. Born in Salem, Mass., July 18, 1784, he made the town of his birth 

 famous as a pomological center in America, where, at the time of his death, October 10, 1842, his garden 

 probably contained a larger collection of fruits than had ever before been brought together in America. 

 Manning began collecting fruits in 1823 when he established his " Pomological Garden " at Salem for the 

 purpose of introducing and testing new varieties of fruits. He attempted to bring together all of the 

 varieties of fruits that would thrive in eastern Massachusetts, and when his garden was fullest had about 

 2000 fruits, of which 1000 kinds were pears, to which fruit he gave most attention. He had many English, 

 French, and Belgian correspondents from whom he received the most notable fruits grown in their countries. 

 He is said to have had a most remarkable memory and could carry in mind the names, tree-habits, and qual- 

 ities of any fruit he had ever seen and could identify it at sight. In whatever group of pomologists 

 he chanced to be, his identifications and decisions on nomenclature were accepted as correct. Small 

 wonder, therefore, that the Book of Fruits, published by Manning in 1838, at once took the place of 

 authority for descriptions of tree-fruits and for such small-fruits, trees, and shrubs as the author described. 

 It was the first, and is almost the only, American pomology in which the descriptions were all made 

 with fruit in hand. The author intended this book to be the first of a series, but the books to follow 

 never appeared. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Pear-growers 

 are indebted to Manning for the work he did in testing the seedlings sent out by Van Mons, the famous 

 Belgian breeder, most of whose pears came to American orchards through the agency of the Salem 

 Pomological Garden. He also received and introduced valuable pears from the London Horticultural 

 Society. His achievements mark Manning among the most notable American pomologists, of whom no 

 other labored as devotedly for the attainment of better pears. 



