122 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
CHAPTER IV 
LEADING VARIETIES OF PEARS 
ANDRE DESPORTES 
1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:127, fig, 1867. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 3:51, fig. 122. 1878. 3. Cat. Cong. Pom. 
France 138, fig. 1906. 
This old French sort is sparingly grown in New York, and is still listed 
by a few American nurserymen. The pears are handsome and very good in 
quality, but they quickly soften at the center and neither keep nor ship 
well. While usually of medium size, or sometimes large, the pears often 
run small. The variety is well worth planting in a collection, but has no 
‘value in a commercial plantation, and there are many better sorts for home 
orchards. 
The parent tree of this variety grew in the seed beds of M. André 
Leroy, the well-known authority on pomology, at Angers, France. M. 
Leroy obtained it in 1854 from pips of Williams’ Bon Chrétien, or as it 
is better known here, the Bartlett pear. He named it after the son of 
M. Baptiste Desportes, manager of the business department of his estab- 
lishment. The vigor and high quality of the fruit were quickly appreciated, 
and the variety was soon disseminated far and wide. 
Tree characteristically upright and vigorous, rapid-growing, hardy, productive; 
branches slender, smooth, light brown overlaid with thin, grayish scarf-skin, marked with 
small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, with short internodes, reddish-brown, slightly 
streaked toward the tips with ash-gray scarf-skin, dull, smooth, glabrous, with numerous 
small, but very conspicuous, raised lenticels. 
Leaf-buds large, pointed, plump, appressed. Leaves 22 in. long, 1% in. wide, ovate, 
stiff, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandular, slightly crenate; petiole 13 in. long. 
Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds or on short 
spurs; flowers showy, 1} in. across, occasionally tinged pink, in dense clusters, averaging 
9 flowers per cluster; pedicels 3 in. long, thick, pubescent. 
Fruit ripe in August; medium in size, 27 in. long, 2} in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, 
symmetrical, uniform; stem 1 in. long, thick, curved; cavity obtuse, shallow, dotted with 
russet, often lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acute; 
basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; 
color dull greenish-yellow, dotted and marbled with reddish-brown, blushed on the sunny 
side; dots numerous, small, light colored, obscure; flesh tinged with yellow, fine, tender and 
melting, buttery, juicy, sweet, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, with 
clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds small, wide, plump, acute. 
