242 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



CX. PEAR TREE with small, deeply ash-gray autumn fruit with a very long pedicel. 

 V1GNE. DEMOISELLE. {PL LVIII. Fig. 2.) 



This is quite a vigorous tree. It's grafted on wild stock & on the quince tree. 



The shoots are short, slender, bent at each node, greenish gray on the shaded side 

 and lightly colored on the side in the sun. 



The buds are medium-sized, rounded, pointed, and very free of the branch. Their 

 stems arc thick. 



The leaves are quite large, oval, three inches four lignes long and two inches three 

 lignes wide. They're not noticeably denticulate except at the tip. The midrib curves 

 downward. The petioles are nineteen lignes long. 



The flowers are seventeen lignes in diameter. The petals are very long & very 

 narrow, eight lignes long by three-&-a-half lignes wide. 



The fruit is small, nineteen lignes in diameter & twenty-one lignes high. The top 

 is very round & a large & very open eye is set there flush with the fruit. The other end 

 diminishes greatly in size; so if it came to more of a point, the fruit would be pyriform. Its 

 stalk is nearly two inches long and thick at the end. 



Its skin is rough and gray-brown. The side in the sun takes on a light reddish color 

 in some parts, speckled with small gray spots. 



Its flesh is buttery and somewhat juicy. a little soft. If the fruit hasn't been picked 

 before it's ripe, it turns mushy; it gets mealy if it's allowed to ripen too long in a fruit loft. 



The juice is extremely good and very flavorful. 



The seeds are large, black, & very full. 



The fruit matures in October. 



