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Table of Contents

Season and use.—Perhaps season is the first, and certainly it is one of the most important characters to be noted in the ripened fruit. By season is meant the period in which a variety is in proper condition for use. Unless otherwise stated, season has reference to the period during which fruit is in condition in ordinary storage, as it is understood that cold-storage greatly prolongs the natural season. The terms summer, fall, and winter, sometimes modified by early or late, give the season with sufficient accuracy. Keeping quality and shipping quality, both dependent on several factors, are usually mentioned in connection with season.

Rather closely connected with season is use. The uses for which a variety is particularly suited should always be indicated. Thus, a market variety is one suitable for the general market; a local market sort is one which does not stand handling well enough for the general market but is acceptable in local trade. A variety for dessert or table is suitable for eating in the uncooked state; cooking or kitchen varieties are desirable for culinary purposes.

Size and shape of fruit.—Of external characters of pears, size is important if several typical specimens can be examined, but is often misleading because under the stress of environment abnormal specimens may be produced. Gradations in size are expressed by the terms large, medium, and small, modified by very, above, and below. Used in connection with size, uniform signifies that the fruit of a variety runs fairly even in the same size.

Shape is the most important character in describing the fruit. It may be used with immature as well as mature specimens. In determining the shape of the fruit, the pear should be held opposite to the eye perpendicular to the diameter from stem to calyx; or the fruit may be cut longitudinally at its widest diameter. The shape of the body of the pear is usually described first, followed by a description of the narrow part bearing the stem, if this neck is prominent enough to be noteworthy. A pear is pyriform when the curve formed by the body and neck is concave; turbinate, or top-shaped, when the body is nearly round with a short neck. The neck may be long or short, distinct or obscure, obtuse or acute. Sheldon is typically turbinate; Beurré d’Anjou, Beurré Bose, and Bartlett are all pyriform.

A graphic record should accompany a description of the fruit to show size and shape. A simple outline drawing serves the purpose.

The stem.—Varying as little as any other character of the pear, the stem is much used in identification. It may be long and slender, as in the Beurré Bose; short and thick, as in Doyenné du Comice; fleshy, as in Louise Bonne de Jersey; clubbed, when enlarged at the end; and lipped when the flesh forms a protuberance under which the stem is inserted. The stems of pears are often set obliquely as in Beurré Clairgeau; or are crooked or curved as in Howell. In a few varieties the stems are channeled. The stems of some pears have distinguishing colors, those of others are pubescent. In some pears, as Souvenir d’Espéren, there are bud-like projections on the stem.

The length of the stem in pears is a reliable diagnostic character only when it is known from what part of the flower-cluster the fruit was developed. For, as a rule, the nearer the flower to the tip of the raceme in the pear, the shorter the stem on the fruit.

Cavity and basin.—The cavity, the depression in which the stem is set, offers several marks which greatly enhance the value of a description of any of the pears. The cavity may be acute or obtuse; shallow, medium, or deep; narrow, medium, or broad; smooth or russeted; furrowed, ribbed, angular, or uniform; or it may be lipped as described under stem. The color of the skin within the cavity is sometimes different from that without, and there may be radiating lines, rays, or streaks.

The basin, the depression in which the calyx is set, is as important as the cavity in classifying pears and is described by the same terms. The furrows in the basin are sometimes indistinct and are then called wavy. The skin around the calyx-lobes may be wrinkled, plaited, folded, or corrugated. Rarely, there are fleshy protuberances about the calyx-lobes called mammiform appendages.

Calyx-lobes.—The withered calyx-lobes persist in some pears and not in others. They persist in European pears, but are deciduous in the edible-fruited Asiatic species. The calyx-lobes may be open, partly open, or closed in varieties of the fruits in which they are persistent. In some varieties the segments are separated at the base; in others, united. The lobes may lie flat on the fruit or may stand erect. When upright, if the tips incline inward the lobes are said to be connivent; if inclined outward, they are reflexed, or divergent. The lobes may be broad or narrow, with tips acute or accuminate.

Characters of the skin.—The skin of all pears offers several most valuable features for classification. Of these characters, color is the most important. Perhaps no character of fruits varies more in accordance with environment than the color, yet the color itself and the way in which it is distributed on the fruit, serve to make this character a fairly safe distinguishing mark for most varieties of pears. The ground-color of pears is the green or yellow-green of chlorophyll, usually with an over-color of tints and shades of yellow or red. The over-color may be laid on in stripes, splashes, or streaks; as a blush; may mottle the surface; or may be a single color, in which case the fruit is said to be self-colored. In nearly all varieties of colored pears, it is not an uncommon anomaly to find trees under some conditions bearing green fruits. Usually, in pears, the color is laid on solidly; very few varieties have striped or splashed fruits.

The skin may be thick or thin, tough or tender. In a few varieties it is relatively free from the flesh, but with most clings tightly. The surface of the skin is often waxy or oily. This character must not be confused with waxen which refers to the glossy appearance of the skin.

Some pears have an unbroken russet surface as Beurré Bose and Sheldon. Or, the surface may be rough because of minute russet dots or netted veins. With many sorts, the cavity alone is russeted. Sometimes the russet of the cavity is spread out in radiating lines.

Nearly all pears have few or many dots on the skin, notes on which may enhance the value of a description. These may be obscure or conspicuous, large or small, raised or sunken. If visible under the epidermis, they are said to be submerged. When star-like, they are called stellate. If surrounded by a halo of lighter color, they are said to be areolar. In some varieties, the dots are elongated. Very often the dots are russeted. The roughened outer skin, called scarf-skin, gives a distinguishing appearance to a few pears.

Cutting pears to show the internal structure.—When varieties cannot be distinguished from external marks, there are several very reliable characters that can be made use of in the internal anatomy of the fruits. To study these it is necessary to make a longitudinal and a transverse section of the pear. To make an accurate examination of the internal structure, the sectioning must be done with a keen, thin knife, with a steady hand, and a good eye.

In making the longitudinal section the knife should pass through the center of the calyx, showing the remnants of styles and stamens; through the middle of the core cell, showing the outline of the core cavity; and through the middle of the stem. A true record cannot be obtained, unless the organs named are divided fairly accurately in halves. In making the transverse section, the knife should pass through the widest diameter of the fruit, cutting the core in half. If the core is not in the center of the fruit, trial cuts to locate it must be made that it may be halved exactly.

The stamens, calyx-tube, and styles.—After halving the fruit longitudinally, the first organs to be studied are the stamens, the position of which furnishes reliable taxonomic data in apples and is occasionally worth noting in pears. Passing from the stamens to the calyx-tube, it will be found that the shape of this structure is of some use in separating varieties, although it is exceedingly variable in accordance with the size of the pear, and is materially altered by abnormalities in the fruit. The base of the styles in some varieties develop into fleshy tissue which alters the shape of the calyx-tube. The calyx-tube may be cone-shaped, funnel-shaped, or urn-shaped. When funnel-shaped, the broad upper part is called the limb; the narrow lower part, the cylinder. In some varieties the remnants of the styles are often more or less fleshy and form a point, called the pistil point, which projects into the calyx-tube.

The core.—The position of the core in the fruit is often a valuable means of distinguishing varieties. If close to the stem, the core is said to be sessile; if at the center of the pome, it is median; when distant from the stem, distant.

The cell containing seed, called a carpel, is morphologically a modified leaf, which, by folding together and by union of its edges forms a closed receptacle. In some varieties, the carpels are open; in others closed. If the tip of the carpel is indented, it is said to be emarginate; if long and pointed, mucronate. In shape, carpels may be round, cordate, obcordate, elliptical, oblong, elongated, ovate, or obovate. In the cores of most pomes there is a central cavity called the core cavity, sometimes spoken of as the axial sac which may be either narrow, wide, or lacking. This is a character of much importance and reliability in pears. When the carpels extend quite to the axis of the fruit, they are said to be axile and there is no core cavity; when distant from the axis, they are abaxile and a core cavity is formed. Sometimes the carpel is lined on the inner surface with a white substance, when it is said to be tufted. In some pears, there are many fine hairs in the core-cavity in which case the cavity is said to be tufted.

The limits of the core are marked by a line in most pome-fruits—usually very distinct in apples and quinces—which in most varieties of pears is indistinct. The area enclosed by this line may be large or small and may be variously shaped. When the core-line joins the calyx-tube along the sides, it is said to be clasping; when the two ends of the line meet at the base of the calyx-tube, the expression core-lines meeting is used. The core-line in pears is nearly always, if not always, clasping and very often it is a more or less thickened area of grit-cells.

Seeds.—Seeds are characteristic in all varieties of pears and might well be used more generally than is the case in classification. The number is exceedingly variable in different varieties. The usual number is two in each cell, but often there are three or more and occasionally they are missing. Seeds vary greatly in different varieties in size, shape, and color, and differences in these characters are as constant as are those of any other organ of the fruit. Number, size, shape, and color of seeds should be noted with care in every technical description of a pear. The point of the seed, also, is worth noting; it may be acute, acuminate, or obtuse. Like the carpels, the seeds are often tufted. There are several so-called seedless pears, but all of these occasionally contain some seeds. Very often seedlessness is brought about by lack of proper pollination. An occasional fruit without seeds is found in nearly all varieties, but these fruits are usually more or less abnormal in size or shape.

Flesh.—Most pears may be identified from the flesh-characters without a glance at any other part of fruit or plant. Flavor, odor, and texture of flesh are distinct in almost every variety, and appeal more strongly to the senses of taste and smell than characters measured by the eye do to the sight. Unfortunately, flavors, odors, and textures are difficult to describe.

All characters of the flesh vary greatly in accordance with conditions of growth, soil and climate having a profound influence on texture, flavor, and quality. It is important, also, in describing the flesh to have the fruit at the proper stage of maturity, and as immaturity verges into maturity and maturity into decay almost imperceptibly, each condition affecting the flesh, it is not surprising that differences of opinion may be many in judging the flesh-characters of a fruit.

In cutting a pear the color of the flesh is first noted. It may be nearly white, as in Flemish Beauty; tinged with yellow, as in Tyson; greenish-white as in Bartlett; or tinged with red, as in Joséphine de Malines. Pears with red flesh are occasionally found, but no standard varieties have flesh of this color. Sanguinole, grown more or less in Europe, has flesh of a wine-red color. Very often the texture of pear-flesh is marred by grittiness to which some varieties are much more subject than others. In most cases, however, the grit-cells are abnormal, and a discussion of their presence and cause belongs under the head of diseases in another chapter.

One determines the nature of the texture by cutting the fruit, through pressure by the fingers, and by eating. The texture may be coarse or fine; tender or tough; crisp, breaking, melting, or almost buttery; dry or juicy.

Flavor and quality.—Pears are readily divided into two classes as to flavor; they are either sweet or sour. The qualifying terms mildly and very are often used with sweet and sour. Subacid, tart, and sprightly are sometimes most expressive. Austere refers to a flavor more or less sour with some astringency. The flavor may often be put down as astringent. All varieties have a more or less distinct aroma. Rich and refreshing are words often found in the rather extensive vocabulary necessary to describe the flavor of this fruit.

Quality is that combination of texture, flavor, and aroma which makes a fruit pleasant to the palate. Quality is rated by common consent of pomologists by five grades: Poor, fair, good, very good, and best. It should be noted that good in this rating signifies a fruit of but medium quality.

The characters of pears are graphically shown on the opposite page in a descriptive form filled out for Bartlett in a description of this variety for The Pears of New York. This is, however, but a skeleton, and most of the characters must be more fully described than a form like this permits. Few pomologists in these days have the temerity to offer a description compiled in whole or in part. Descriptions are worth while only when made from living specimens before the eyes of the describer.