138 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
who want choicely good fruits. The pears are not as attractive in appear- 
ance as might be wished, but are hardly surpassed in flavor in their season. 
The flesh is notable for juiciness, rich vinous flavor, and pleasant perfume. 
The trees are large, healthy even as regards blight, very productive, and 
are easily suited as to soils. The trees do not bear early, but are regular 
in bearing after this life event begins. In Europe, the variety is commonly 
and successfully grown as a dwarf, and the pear-growers of a generation 
ago in America recommend this variety as one of the good sorts to work on 
the quince. The variety is a valuable one for home orchards, especially 
in New York where it grows exceptionally well. 
Beurré Superfin was raised from a bed of pear seeds made at Angers, 
France, by M. Goubault, a well-known pomologist, in 1837. The parent 
tree so produced bore fruit in 1844 and the Committee of the Horticultural 
Society of Maine-et-Loire was requested to report on its merits, which it 
did in that year, and M. Millet, president of the society, named it Beurré 
Superfin. It was introduced in America about 1850. The variety was 
placed on the fruit catalog-list of the American Pomological Society in 1858. 
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; trunk 
stocky, rough; branches thick, rough and shaggy, zigzag, dull brownish-red, overspread 
with gray scarf-skin, sprinkled with numerous elongated lenticels; branchlets slender, 
light brown, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with small, raised, inconspicuous lenticels. 
Leaf-buds small, short, conical, pointed, plump, appressed or free; leaf-scars prominent. 
Leaves 33 in. long, 13 in. wide, stiff; apex abruptly pointed; margin tipped with small glands, 
coarsely serrate; petiole 12 in. long. Flower-buds conical, pointed, plump, free, singly 
on short branches and short spurs. 
Fruit matures in October; large, 33 in. long, 22 in. wide, roundish-oblate, with a short, 
thick, rounded neck, symmetrical; stem 1} in. long, very thick, curved; cavity very shallow 
and narrow or lacking, the flesh tapering into the stem or wrinkled in a fleshy fold about 
the base of the stem, often lipped; calyx open; lobes separated at the base, broad, narrow; 
basin narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed, symmetrical; skin very granular, tender, smooth; 
color yellow, netted and streaked with light russet, often with a slight brownish-russet 
cheek; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh tinged with yellow, granular, melt- 
ing, buttery, very juicy, sweet yet with a rich, brisk, vinous flavor, aromatic; quality very 
good. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds 
large, wide, long, plump, acute. 
BLOODGOOD 
1. Mag. Hort. 3:14. 1837. 2. Manning Book of Fruits 65. 1838. 3. Mag. Hort. 9:366, fig. 31. 1843. 
4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 332, fig. 132. 1845. §. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 6. Mas Le Verger 
2:181, fig. 89. 1866-73. 7. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:449, fig. 1867. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 532. 1884. 
Bloodgood's Sommerbirne. 9. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 186. 1889. 
