204 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



ten to twelve lignes long, is thick, red on the side in the sun, yellow or very light green on 

 the shaded side. It inserts at a slant & almost flush with the fruit. 



Its skin is smooth & shiny and a very beautiful deep red on the side in the sun. 

 The opposite side is light green & turns lemon yellow streaked with pale red when it's 

 ripe. The red is completely speckled with very tiny yellow spots. It lightens up closer to 

 the yellow side & forms small streaks or lines. Barely a quarter of the skin is yellow; all 

 the rest is red. 



Its flesh is semi-buttery. It's inclined to get mealy & to soften rapidly. 



The juice is sweet with quite a nice though not very accented flavor. 



The seeds are black and frequently abort. 



This pear ripens in July. It's one of the most beautiful of that season. It's best 

 picked before it ripens. 



I'm not familiar with Merlet's Supreme. His Bellissime is a medium-sized pear, 

 thirty lignes high by twenty-six lignes in diameter. If the point near the stalk were less 

 blunt, it would look a lot like the Beurre, at least in that part. When there's less of a 

 difference between its diameter & its height, its shape is close to that of the Doyenne. It's 

 flattened at the top. The eye, often sort of wrinkled, is set in a not very concave 

 indentation with ridges around it. The other end is a truncate point. The stalk is quite full 

 and is the same color as the fruit. It's about thirteen lignes long and is often marked with 

 bumps at its origin. It inserts into a very small indentation. The skin of the fruit is very 

 smooth, streaked with red on the side in the sun, green on the shaded side, & it turns 

 yellow as the fruit ripens. The juice is slightly accented with a musky flavor. It ripens at 

 the same time as the preceding one. 



