I50 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
DOUGLAS 
1. Kan. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 63. 1908-09. 2. Rural N. Y. 70:59, fig. 24. 1911. 3. U.S. D.A. Year- 
book 267, Pl. 4. 1912. 4. Rural N. Y. 722458, fig. 146. 1913. §. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 41, 42. 1915. 
In regions where blight and heat make pear-growing precarious, and 
only pears with oriental blood, as Kieffer, Garber, and Le Conte, can be 
grown, Douglas, which belongs with the pears just named, might well be 
tried. Certainly it is better in flavor than any other variety of its class. 
The trees come in bearing remarkably early, and are as productive as those 
of Kieffer, though hardly as large or as vigorous. The trees are inclined to 
overbear, in which case the fruits run small. The variety has little to 
recommend it for New York, but those who grow Kieffer might put it on 
probation with the hope of growing a fruit passably fair for dessert. 
Douglas is a seedling of Kieffer crossed, it is believed, with Duchesse 
d’Angouléme by O. H. Ayer, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, about 
the year 1897. It fruited first in 1902 and attracted the attention of A. H. 
Griesa, also of Lawrence, who propagated it in 1907, and sent out speci- 
mens of it for appraisement in October, I910, when it was very favorably 
reported on by many prominent horticulturists. In accordance with Mr. 
Griesa’s suggestion, it was named Douglas after the county of its origin. 
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, very productive; trunk slender, smooth; 
branches slender, dull brownish-red, mottled with gray scarf-skin; branchlets medium in 
thickness and length, smooth, glabrous, sprinkled with numerous raised, conspicuous 
lenticels. Leaf-buds large, long, pointed, plump, free; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 
3% in. long, 13 in. wide, thick; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless, finely and shallowly 
serrate; petiole 13 in. long. Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free; flowers 1} in. 
across, white or occasionally with a faint tinge of pink, 11 or 12 buds in a cluster; pedicels 
18 in. long. 
Fruit matures in October; large, 33 in. long, 22 in. wide, obovate-pyriform, tapering 
at both ends like the Kieffer; stem 13 in. long, slender; cavity deep, narrow, compressed, 
often lipped; calyx small, partly open; basin furrowed; skin thick, tough; color pale yellow, 
heavily dotted and sometimes flecked with russet; dots numerous, small, light russet or 
greenish; flesh tinged with yellow, firm but tender, granular, very juicy, sweet yet withan 
invigorating flavor; quality good. Core closed, axile; calyx-tube short, wide; seeds long, 
plump, acute. 
DOYENNE D’ALENCON 
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 213. 1856. 2. Ibid. 231. 1858. 3. Ann. Pom. Belge 8:15, Pl. 1860. 4. 
Pom. France 2: No. 47, Pl. 47. 1864. 5. Mas Le Verger 1:23, fig. 10. 1866-73. 6. Downing Fr. Trees 
Am. 742. 1869. 7. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:55, fig. 1869. 8. Jour. Hort, N. S. 20:135. 1871. 9. Guide 
Prat. 61, 264. 1876. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 564. 1884. 
Marmorirte Schmalzbirne. 11. Dochnahl Fiihr, Obstkunde 2:65. 1856. 
Dechantsbirne von Alengon, 12. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 201. 1889. 
