THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 199 



quality very good. Core closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, narrow, conical; 

 seeds wide, acute. 



MOUNT VERNON 



i. Am. Jour. Hort. 3:144, figs. 1868. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 818. 1869. 3. Horticulturist 

 34:367, fig. 1869. 4. Ibid. 26:361. 1871. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 20. 1871. 6. Horticulturist 

 27:204. 1872. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:256. 1903. 



As a distinct type, and because the pears ripen at a season when there 

 are few other varieties of this fruit, Mount Vernon has a prominent place 

 in the list of worthy American pears. The top-shaped form and reddish -russet 

 color give the pear a unique appearance, and with the greenish-yellow, gran- 

 ular, spicy, piquant flesh constitute very distinct characters in its quality. 

 Unfortunately, the russet color is not well brought out in the accompanying 

 color-plate. Lack of uniformity in shape and size are the chief defects 

 in the appearance of the pears. The variety is valuable because it ripens 

 its crop in early winter from which time, under good conditions, it may 

 be kept until mid-winter, a season in which there are few good pears. The 

 trees are unusually satisfactory in most of the characters of importance in 

 a good pear-tree. The tree is vigorous but the head is small, with numer- 

 ous, short, stocky branches, many of which droop. The aspect given 

 the top by these peculiarities is quite distinct. The variety is worthy when 

 a winter pear is wanted whether for home or market. 



This pear, which is very distinct from any other variety, originated from 

 a chance seedling in the garden of Samuel Walker, Roxbury, Massachu- 

 setts, at the end of the first half of the nineteenth century. 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, with many drooping branches, dense-topped, hardy, 

 productive, long-lived; trunk stocky; branches thick, shaggy, reddish-brown, overcast 

 with gray scarf-skin, marked by few large lenticels; branchlets thick, with short internodes, 

 grayish-brown, smooth, glabrous, with a few large, raised lenticels. 



Leaf-buds variable in shape, usually free. Leaves 23 in. long, ij in. wide, oval, 

 medium to thick, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin crenate, tipped with rudimentary 

 glands; petiole ij in. long. Flower-buds large, long, conical or pointed, free; flowers if 

 in. across, in dense clusters, 7 to 9 buds in a cluster; pedicels \ in. long, slender, lightly 

 pubescent, pale green, with a faint tinge of red. 



Fruit ripe in late October and November; medium in size, 2$ in. long, 2$ in. wide, 

 uniform in size, roundish-obtuse-pyriform, irregular, with unequal sides, variable in 

 shape; stem i in. long, thick, usually curved; cavity obtuse, very shallow and narrow, 

 russeted, furrowed, often very heavily lipped, so that the stem appears to be inserted 

 under a fleshy enlargement; calyx open; lobes short, narrow, acute to acuminate; basin 

 narrow, obtuse, smooth, usually symmetrical; skin granular, roughened by russet, dull; 

 color light russet overspreading a greenish-yellow ground, with a brownish-red blush on 



