THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 179 
Tree large, vigorous, upright, the younger branches inclined to droop, very productive; 
branches stocky, dark reddish-brown; branchlets often curved and drooping, short, sprinkled 
with elongated, inconspicuous lenticels. Leaf-buds large, conical, appressed. Leaves oval, 
enlarged at the base; apex abruptly pointed; margin coarsely serrate; petiole long, thick. 
Flower-buds large, long-conic; flowers medium in size. 
Fruit ripens in August and September; medium to sometimes large, 33 in. long, 23 in. 
wide, obtuse-pyriform to oblong-pyriform; stem 1 in. long, slender, obliquely inserted; 
cavity obtuse, very shallow; calyx small, open; lobes long, projecting; basin variable 
in depth, small, irregular, furrowed; skin smooth, glossy; color lemon-yellow, blushed with 
red on the sunny side, occasionally marbled with thin orange-russet about the neck; dots 
light greenish or russet; flesh white, coarse, juicy, sweet, aromatic; quality good. Core 
large; seeds dark browr, small, narrow, long, often abortive. 
JOSEPHINE DE MALINES 
1. McIntosh Bk. Gard. 2:461. 1855. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 68. 1862. 3. Pom. France 2: No. 
50, Pl. 50. 1864. 4. Jour. Hort. N. S. 14:67. 1868. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 793, fig. 1869. 6. 
Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:310, fig. 1869. 7. Guide Prat. 61, 282. 1876. 8. Jour. Hort. 3rd Ser. 5:565, fig. 
96. 1882. 9. Hogg Fruit Man. 599. 1884. 10. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fr. 182. 1920. 
Joséphine von Mecheln. 11. Dochnahl Fuhr. Obstkunde 2:93. 1856. 12. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 239. 
1889. 13. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 50, Pl. 31. 1894. 
Malines. 14. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1897. 
This is another of the few good winter pears. The fruit-characters 
are so distinctive and meritorious that the variety should be grown in every 
home orchard, and it possesses much merit for commercial plantations. 
The fruits have a marked peculiarity. Cut through the shaded yellow-russet 
skin, flesh with a faint, rosy tint is displayed. Several red or rosy-fleshed 
pears are grown in Europe, but this is the only one described by American 
pomologists. The tree also, has a marked peculiarity; it thrives amazingly 
well on the white-thorn as well as on pear and quince stocks. But it is the 
quality of the fruits that commends the variety most highly. The flesh is 
buttery, juicy, sweet, and perfumed — pleasing in every character that 
gratifies the palate. The season is exceedingly variable, and is given by 
different pomologists from December to March and January to May. 
The fruits are not very pleasing in appearance, but the accompanying 
illustration scarcely does them justice in either size or color. In the orchard, 
the trees are satisfactory, but the nurserymen find them rather difficult to 
grow, this, no doubt, being the chief reason for the apparent neglect of this 
splendid pear. The trees thrive in almost any soil or situation suitable to 
pears, and are everywhere prodigiously fruitful, hardy, and resistant to 
blight. The variety deserves wider recognition than it now receives. 
