THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 165 
color on the sunny side. The flesh, while gritty near the core, is tender, 
juicy, buttery, very rich, sweet, and aromatic. It is just the pear for those 
who prefer sweetness to vinousness or piquancy, and who object to even a 
trace of astringency. The trees, while only medium in size, are vigorous, 
hardy, healthy, and productive. If the variety grows elsewhere as well as 
it does on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station it 
is too good to be lost. The fruits are in season and at their best for 
Christmas. 
This pear was raised from seed by Major Espéren, Mechlin, Belgium. 
The tree fruited first in 1842 and was given the name Fondante de Noél to 
indicate the day on which it was tasted for the first time. In 1862 a pear 
called Souvenir d’ Espéren, attributed to seed grown by Berckmans, a noted 
Belgian horticulturist living in the United States, was put forth, but after 
examination there did not appear to be any difference in either the fruit 
or the wood of this tree from that of the variety grown by Major Espéren. 
Because the name Souvenir d’ Espéren appears in connection with Fondante 
de Noél, the variety has been confused with another pear which was raised 
by Major Espéren and named Souvenir d’Espéren. The two, however, 
are entirely distinct and the last-named sort has long been known and is 
still found growing in certain pear orchards of the eastern United States. 
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, hardy, productive; trunk thick, smooth; 
branches brownish-green, nearly covered with gray scarf-skin; branchlets slender, with 
long internodes, smooth, glabrous, marked with conspicuous, raised lenticels. 
Leaf-buds large, long, conical, plump, free. Leaves 33 in. long, 1} in. wide; apex 
taper-pointed; margin glandless, finely serrate; petiole 2§ in. long. Flower-buds large, 
long, plump, free, singly on short spurs; flowers showy, 13 in. across, white often tinged 
pink on the edges of the petals, average 9 buds in a cluster; pedicels } in. long. 
Fruit matures December to January; large, 2} in. long, 2? in. wide, roundish-turbinate, 
irregular; stem 2 in. long, thick, woody, obliquely set; cavity obtuse, shallow, narrow, 
furrowed, often lipped; calyx small, nearly closed; basin narrow, obtuse, furrowed; skin 
roughened by russet dots and patches; color dull greenish-yellow, with many dots, flecks 
and patches of russet, often with a faint trace of brownish-red on the sunny side; dots 
numerous, small, russet, rather conspicuous; flesh white, gritty only near the core, tender, 
buttery, juicy, sweet, highly aromatic; quality good to very good; core large, with meeting 
core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide; seeds large, long, plump, acute. 
FONTENAY 
xr. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 38. 1883. 
Jalousie de Fontenay Vendée. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 396, fig. 173. 1845. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. 
Rpt. 68. 1862. 
Belle de Esquermes. 4. Mag. Hort. 20:135. 1854. 
