BEURRÉ GIFFARD
1. Gard. Chron. 69. 1848. 2. Mag. Hort. 18:433, fig. 30. 1852. 3. Ann. Pom. Belge 5:69, Pl. 1857. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 231. 1858. 5. Pom. France 1: No. 1, Pl. 1. 1863. 6. Mas Le Verger 2:39, fig. 18. 1866-73. 7. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:369, fig. 1867. 8. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 689. 1869. 9. Hogg Fruit Man. 521. 1884. 10. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 374, fig. 1904.
Giffard’s Butterbirne. 11. Oberdieck Obst-Sort. 255. 1881. 12. Lauche Deut. Pom. II: No. 57, Pl. 57. 1883.
Giffard. 13. Gard. Chron. 415. 1863. 14. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 38. 1883.
This is one of the few summer pears with a distinctly vinous flavor, which, with the crisp and tender flesh, makes it one of the most refreshing of summer fruits. The pears are larger than those of most other sorts of its season, somewhat like those of Beurré Clairgeau in shape and color, and ripen at a time—just before Clapp Favorite—when good pears should be in demand for home and market. The fruits keep well for summer pears, and are remarkable for their small cores. The trees, while in no way remarkable, are quite up to the average in all characters, and surpass most of their orchard associates in hardiness and fruitfulness. The variety is desirable for both home and commercial orchards.
This early summer pear was found as a chance seedling in 1825 by Nicolas Giffard, Foussières, France. In 1840, M. Millet, president of the Society of Horticulture of Maine-et-Loire, wrote the first description of it in the Bulletins of the Society. It was introduced in America about 1850, and in 1858 was added to the fruit catalog-list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree of medium size, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy, productive; branches reddish-brown, nearly covered with gray scarf-skin, with long and narrow, large lenticels; branchlets slender, new growth willowy, long, reddish-brown, smooth, glabrous except near the tips of the new growth, with conspicuous, raised, round lenticels.
Leaf-buds small, short, pointed, appressed. Leaves 2¾ in. long, 1½ in. wide, stiff; apex taper-pointed; margin entire, sometimes slightly pubescent; petiole 2½ in. long, slender, reddish-green; stipules very long and slender. Flower-buds small, plump, free, singly on very short spurs; flowers showy, 1¼ in. across, in dense clusters, average 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels ¾ in. long, pubescent.
Fruit ripe in late August; variable in size, averages 3 in. long, 2⅜ in. wide, obovate-acute-pyriform; stem ¾ in. long; cavity lacking, the flesh closing up symmetrically around the stem except when drawn up in a lip; calyx open, small; lobes separated at the base, narrow, accuminate; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, almost smooth, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; color dull greenish-yellow, with a dotted, dull red blush, often without blush; dots numerous, small, greenish and russet, very conspicuous; flesh tinged with yellow, granular at the center, melting, very juicy, vinous, highly aromatic; quality very good. Core small, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube narrow, funnel-shaped; seeds plump, acute.
