152 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



XXXVI. PEAR TREE with medium-sized pyriform-acuminate autumn fruit, honey-colored on 

 one side to bright red on the other. 



MARTIN-SEC. (PL XIV.) [Translator's note: a very early variety grown in England 

 along with the Martin-Sire (see above) and mentioned as early as 1292 during the reign 

 of Edward I. It ripens around the time of the feast of St. Martin in November.] 



This is a very fruitful pear tree. It's grafted on wild stock & on quince trees. 



The shoots are medium-sized, very much bent at each node near the base, straight 

 toward the tip, and not very speckled. They're pearl gray on the shaded side and reddish 

 brown, slightly wine-colored & glossy on the side in the sun. 



The buds are very slender, rounded, long, pointed, somewhat free of the branch, 

 and held on a stout stem. 



The leaves are oblong, folded on the central vein, sometimes boat-shaped, and 

 very finely, evenly, & not very deeply denticulate. They're two inches ten lignes long and 

 twenty-one lignes wide. The petiole is slender and twenty lignes long. 



The flowers are seventeen lignes in diameter. The petals are almost round and are 

 concave spoonlike. Some have light streaks of red on their margins. 



The fruit is medium-sized, two inches in diameter & two inches seven lignes high. 

 It's pyriform and looks quite a lot like the Rousselet but is less rounded at the top. The 

 eye is closed and is set in a small indentation with creases & quite noticeable protrusions 

 around the edges. The fruit comes to a point at the end near the stalk, which is curved & 

 is about seven or eight, & sometimes as much as eighteen lignes long. 



A good-looking Martin-sec pear that's well formed & in good condition is about 

 two-&-a-half inches in diameter by three inches two or three lignes high. Its largest part 

 is near the top, which is slightly elongated. The eye is set almost even with a protrusion 

 formed by five small bumps that correspond to the five sections of the calyx. 



