DANA HOVEY
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 48. 1891.
Dana’s No. 16. 2. Mag. Hort. 19:541. 1853. 3. Ibid. 20:136. 1854.
Dana’s Hovey. 4. Mag. Hort. 25:202, fig. 10. 1859. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 68. 1862. 6. Gard. Chron. 1191, fig. 1866. 7. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 730. 1869. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 556. 1884. 9. Garden 49:226. 1896.
Danas Hovey. 10. Gard. Chron. 3rd Ser. 47:67, fig. 39. 1910.
Dana Hovey is a delicious little dessert pear, so juicy, sweet, and rich that it is a veritable sweetmeat. The fruits are so similar to those of Seckel that the variety is sometimes called “Winter Seckel.” Dana Hovey is one of the best pears to succeed Seckel. The fruits come in season about the middle of November and keep six weeks in ordinary storage. The flavor is that of Winter Nelis with a smack of Seckel. If the fruits are picked early and kept in a dry, cool place they ripen early in December with a rich, golden color strewn with russet. It is in the same class with Seckel as to size of fruit, although the pears average larger and are more uniform in size from different trees and in different seasons. The pears are also more brightly colored than those of Seckel. Superiority in size and color makes the fruits of this variety much more attractive than those of the better-known Seckel. The trees are hardy, vigorous, and thrive on various soils but are only moderately productive and are somewhat susceptible to blight, falling far short of those of Seckel in these characters, for which reason the last-named variety is the better for commercial plantations. Dana Hovey is one of few winter pears with fruits of high quality, and thus is very desirable for home plantations and ought to have value in commercial plantations.
Francis Dana, Roxbury, Massachusetts, was an indefatigable raiser of new fruits, there being no fewer than sixteen varieties of pears with the prefix “Dana’s,” of which the one under notice is the best of all. It was introduced to the public about 1854 under the name of Dana’s Hovey in honor of C. M. Hovey, the well-known nurseryman of Boston and author of The Fruits of America. Dana Hovey is so similar to Seckel that the latter is supposed to be one of its parents. The variety was added to the American Pomological Society’s fruit-list in 1862.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, rapid-growing, productive; trunk stocky; branches reddish-brown mingled with green which is almost completely overspread with gray scarf-skin, marked by few small lenticels; branchlets thick, short, light brown mingled with green, marked with ash-gray at the tips, smooth, glabrous, with small, scattering, slightly raised lenticels.
Leaf-buds small, short, pointed, plump, usually appressed. Leaves 3¼ in. long, 2⅛ in. wide, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless or with few reddish glands, finely serrate; petiole short, stocky, 1½ in. long, glabrous. Flower-buds short, conical but obtuse at the apex, plump, free, arranged singly on short spurs; flowers 1½ in. across, in dense clusters, average 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels ¾ in. long, slender, thinly pubescent.
Fruit matures in late October and November; medium in size, 2½ in. long, 2⅛ in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, symmetrical, uniform; stem ½ in. long, slender; cavity abrupt, shallow, very small, narrow, slightly lipped; calyx partly open, small; lobes short, narrow, acute; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, smooth, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; color golden-yellow at maturity, covered with thin russet; dots numerous, small, greenish-russet; flesh tinged with yellow, granular at the center, tender and melting, juicy, sweet, highly perfumed; quality of the best. Core large, closed, abaxile; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds wide, short, plump, obtuse.
