224 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



This pear is consumed in January, February, March, & even in April. 



XCV. PEAR TREE with large smooth blunted-conical lemon yellow winter fruit. 

 VIRGOULEUSE. (PL LI.) 



This tree is the most, or one of the most, vigorous of the pear trees. It's slow to 

 bear fruit, but it is fruitful and not very fastidious about soil & exposure. However a 

 south-facing espalier is not very suitable for it because the fruit will then split & become 

 disfigured. It's grafted on wild stock & on the quince tree. 



The shoots are long & very strong, full of snags at the base, slightly bent at each 

 bud, green and very speckled with gray spots. Some are reddish, at least on the sun side. 

 especially when the pear tree is grafted on a quince tree or planted in a warm exposure. 



The buds are big, round, pointed, very broad at the base and free of the branch. 

 Their stems are flat. 



The leaves are big & beautiful. They're wide at the end near the stalk; they narrow 

 quite uniformly & terminate in a point. They're three inches five lignes long, two inches 

 six lignes wide, finely & not very deeply denticulate. The veins are thin. The midrib 

 curves downward. The leaf closes along the central vein with wavy ruffled margins. The 

 petioles are an inch long. 



The flowers are fourteen lignes in diameter. The petals are pointed ovals and are 

 not very concave. 



The fruit is big; it's two inches five lignes in diameter & three inches high. It's 

 long & is very beautifully shaped. Its largest diameter is closer to the eye than to the 

 stalk. The eye is small and is set in the bottom of a quite wide & not very deep 

 indentation. 



