190 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
This pear was obtained by M. Léon Leclerc, a distinguished pomologist 
living at Laval, France, who dedicated it to his friend Van Mons. Desiring 
to couple his own name with that of his friend, he gave it the name of Van 
Mons Léon Leclerc, by which appellation it has been known by most 
authors. The variety first fruited in 1828. There has been a good deal 
of confusion as to the identity of this pear, owing to the fact that Van Mons 
raised a pear in 1816 which he dedicated to Léon Leclerc. The proper 
name of the latter pear is Léon Leclerc de Laval. There is also a Léon 
Leclerc de Louvain. The variety under discussion was fruited in this 
country previous to 1843 by Marshall P. Wilder. The American Pomo- 
logical Society added the variety to its fruit-catalog in 1862 but dropped 
it in 1869. 
Tree medium in size, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk shaggy; 
branches roughish, reddish-brown, overspread with heavy, dull scarf-skin, with conspicu- 
ous, numerous, large lenticels; branchlets very slender and curved, short, with short inter- 
nodes, light brown streaked with gray and tinged with green, dull, smooth, glabrous, 
with numerous small, conspicuous, raised lenticels. 
Leaf-buds very small, short, pointed, appressed. Leaves 1% in. long, 3+ in. wide, 
leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless, entire; petiole 14 in. long, glabrous, reddish- 
green. Flower-buds small, short, conical, plump, free, singly on short spurs; flowers 
showy, 13 in. across, in dense racemes, 7 or 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels 3 in. long, pubescent. 
Fruit ripe in late September and October; large, 32 in. long, 23 in. wide, oblong-pyri- 
form, tapering to a very long, narrow neck; stem 1 in. long, thick, curved; cavity very small, 
compressed, usually lipped; calyx large, open; lobes separated at the base, broad, acute; 
basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, symmetrical; skin thick, tough, roughened by russet specks: 
color dull yellow, covered with dots and tracings of russet and occasionally with a faint 
russet-red blush; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh granular under the skin, 
nearly melting, juicy, subacid or with a peculiar sprightliness; quality good. Core large, 
closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, narrow, conical; seeds large, wide, long, 
acute. 
LINCOLN 
1. Mass. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 88. 1845. 2. Jll. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 196, Pls. 1894. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. 
Rpt. 141. 1894. 4. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 42. 1889. 5. Rural N. Y. 48:754, figs. 275 and 276. 1889. 
6. Am. Pom, Soc. Cat. 36. 1899. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort, Man. 2:253. 1903. 
Nearly a hundred years old without having received favorable mention. 
from pear growers, Lincoln has been brought from the limbo of lost fruits 
in recent years to take high rank in the list of pears for the Mississippi 
Valley. The variety is spoken of in such superlative terms for that region 
that judging from its behavior in New York, it would seem that western 
pear-growers give it attributes which Nature denies it. At best, in the 
