THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 125 
since no other variety is so easily grown, nor so reliable in the markets, 
Bartlett promises long to continue its supremacy for home and commercial 
plantations. After Kieffer, it is the most desired of all pears by the canning 
trade. Bartlett is the parent of several other well-known varieties, and of 
many sorts of small importance. 
This pear was found as a wilding by a Mr. Stair, a schoolmaster at 
Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. From him it was acquired by a Mr. 
Williams, a nurseryman at Turnham Green, Middlesex, and as it was prop- 
agated and distributed by him it became known by his name, although 
it is still known as Stair’s pear at Aldermaston. It was brought to this 
country in 1797 or 1799 by James Carter of Boston for Thomas Brewer 
who planted the variety in his grounds at Roxbury, Massachusetts, under 
the name of Williams’ Bon Chrétien, by which name it was then and still is 
known both in England and France. In 1817 Enoch Bartlett, Dorchester, 
Massachusetts, became possessed of the Brewer estate, and not knowing its 
true name allowed the pear to go out under his own. Henceforth it was 
known in America as Bartlett. The American Pomological Society added 
this variety to its catalog-list of fruits in 1848. 
Tree medium in size, tall, pyriform, upright, hardy, very productive; branches 
stocky, smooth, reddish-brown overlaid with ash-gray scarf-skin, with few lenticels; 
branchlets short, with short internodes, reddish-brown, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with 
conspicuous lenticles. 
Leaf-buds short, obtuse, pointed, mostly free; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 23 in. 
long, 1% in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin tipped with small dark red 
glands, finely serrate; petiole 12 in. long. Flower-buds large, conical, pointed, free; flowers 
showy, 13 in. across, in dense clusters averaging 7 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1} in. long, 
slender, slightly pubescent. 
Fruit matures in September; large, 33 in. long, 23 in. wide, oblong-obtuse-pyriform, 
tapering toward the apex, symmetrical, uniform; stem 1} in. long, often curved, thick; 
cavity small, usually lipped, with thin, overspreading streaks of light russet, acute, shallow; 
calyx partly open; lobes separated at the base, narrow, acute; basin very shallow, narrow, 
obtuse, furrowed and wrinkled; skin thin, tender, smooth, often dull, the surface some- 
what uneven; color clear yellow, with a faint blush on the exposed cheek, more or less 
dotted with russet and often thinly russeted around the basin; dots many, small, con- 
spicuous, greenish-russet; flesh fine-grained although slightly granular at the center, melt- 
ing, buttery, very juicy, vinous, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, with 
clasping core-lines; calyx-tube long, wide, funnel-shaped; seeds wide, plump, acute. 
BELLE LUCRATIVE 
1. Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 364. 1831. 2. Kenrick Am. Orch. 135. 1841. 3. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:41, 
Pl. 1851. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 53. 1852. 5. Field Pear Cult. 194, fig. 68. 1858. 
