106 



WINTER NELIS 



WORDEN SECKEL 



serious faults, but these are outmatched by 

 virtues which make the variety preeminent in 

 its season. The fruits are small, and are often 

 so poorly colored as to be unattractive, but 

 well grown they are sufficiently large for des- 



99. Winter Nelis. 



sert fruits, and with their russeted coat and 

 a ruddy cheek are handsome. The flesh is 

 tender, melting, juicy, luscious, with a rich, 

 sweet, aromatic flavor. The fruits keep, ship, 

 and sell well. The season is from Christmas 

 to March, but the pears can be kept until late 

 spring in cold storage. No variety is more 

 difficult to grow well in the nursery, and in the 

 orchard the trees are among the unmanage- 

 ables. They are small or of but medium size 

 with straggling, wayward tops with habits of 

 growth so self-assertive that no art nor skill 

 of the pruner can bring the branches under 

 control. Notwithstanding the poorly-shaped 

 tops, the trees are often enormously productive. 

 They bear almost annually; come in bearing 

 young; are fairly hardy; and are adapted to 

 almost any soil or situation, provided that the 

 soil is fertile; and are as nearly immune to 

 blight as those of any other European pear. 

 The trees are characterized by two marked pe- 

 culiarities; the old wood is thickly set with 

 small short spurs; and they are about the 

 latest of all their kind in leafing out in the 

 spring. There is no better winter pear for 

 either the commercial pear-grower or the 

 amateur. Winter Nelis was raised from seed 

 by Jean Charles Nelis, Mechlin, Belgium, early 

 in the nineteenth century. 



Tree medium in size and vigor, spreading, hardy, very 

 productive ; trunk stocky ; branches thick, zigzag, droop- 

 ing, reddish-brown, marked with small lenticels. Leaves 

 3 inches long, 1 % inches wide, elongated oval, leathery ; 

 apex taper-pointed; margin crenate ; petiole 1% inches 

 long, slender. Flowers open late, 1% inches across, 

 6 or 7 buds in a cluster. Fruit ripe November to 

 January ; medium in size, 2 % inches long, 2 ^4 inches 

 wide, uniform in size and shape, obtuse-obovate-pyriform, 

 symmetrical; stem 1% inches long, thick, curved; cavity 

 obtuse, shallow, narrow, russeted, gently furrowed, oc- 

 casionally lipped ; calyx large, open ; lobes separated at 

 the base, short, broad, acute ; basin shallow, obtuse, 

 lightly furrowed, symmetrical ; skin thick, tender, rough- 

 ened with russet, dull ; color yellow, with many russet 

 streaks and patches, the erposed cheek blushed with 

 light red ; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous ; 



flesh yellowish-white, granular at the center and under- 

 neath the skin, tender and melting, buttery, very juicy, 

 sweet, aromatic ; quality very good ; core large, closed, 

 axile, with clasping core-lines ; calyx-tube short, wide, 

 conical ; seeds large, wide, long, plump, acute. 



WORDEN SECKEL. Fig. 100. Warden. 

 Possibly no pear has been more widely adver- 

 tised during the last quarter century than 

 Worden Seckel. Nurserymen and pear-growers 

 alike describe it as a better variety than 

 Seckel, and say that it ought to take the place 

 of that sort of which it is a seedling. But it 

 falls short of Seckel in not being quite as de- 

 pendable in different soils and climates; the 

 trees are not as vigorous, and not as resistant to 

 blight; and the fruits are not as high in quality. 

 On the other hand, the pears are larger and 

 handsomer. Well grown, the fruits of Worden 

 Seckel are voluptuously handsome in form and 

 color. They are smooth, glossy, trim of con- 

 tour, usually uniform, with a beautifully 



100. Worden Seckel. (X%) 



blushed cheek on a handsome yellow back- 

 ground. When the crop is thinned so that 

 the fruits attain large size, no pear is hand- 

 somer or will bring a higher price on the fruit- 

 stands. The crop comes in with Seckel, but 

 keeps longer. The tree is very hardy and 

 bears young. Commercial growers should 

 give this variety a thorough test, and amateurs 

 everywhere will find it worth planting. Wor- 

 den Seckel was raised by Sylvester Worden, 

 Minetto, New York, about 1881. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, rapid-growing, 

 very productive ; trunk thick ; branches reddish-brown, 

 marked with numerous lenticels. Leaves 2% inches long, 

 1 % inches wide, thick, leathery ; apex taper-pointed ; 

 margin tipped with few minute glands, serrate ; petiole 

 1% inches long, glabrous, slender, tinged with red. 

 Flowers showy, 1* inches across, in dense clusters, 8 or 

 10 buds in a cluster. Fruit ripe in late September- 

 October ; medium in size, 2 % inches long, 2 % inches 

 wide, obovate-acute-pyriform, symmetrical ; stem % inch 

 long, thick ; cavity very shallow and obtuse or lacking, 

 the flesh folded up around the base of the stem and 

 often lipped ; calyx open, large ; lobes narrow, acute ; 

 basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, smooth or gently furrowed, 

 symmetrical ; skin thin, tender, smooth, glossy ; color 

 pale golden-yellow, well blushed on the exposed cheek 

 with solid bright red ; dots numerous, small, russet, 

 obscure ; flesh yellowish, fine-grained near the skin, 

 granular at the center, tender and melting, buttery, 

 very juicy, spicy and aromatic; quality very good ; core 

 closed, axile, with meeting core-lines ; calyx-tube conical ; 

 carpels ovate ; seeds wide, plump, obtuse. 



