DUCHESSE D’ORLÉANS
1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 143. 1841. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 68. 1862. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 749. 1869. 4. Hogg Fruit Man. 570. 1884.
Duchess of Orleans. 5. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:91, Pl. 1851.
Saint-Nicolas. 6. Pom. France 1: No. 33, Pl. 33. 1863. 7. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 343, fig. 1906.
Beurré de Saint-Nicolas. 8. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 1, 137, fig. 67. 1866-73. 9. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:426, fig. 1867.
Butterbirne von Saint-Nicolas. 10. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 191. 1889.
In the middle of the last century this pear was heralded as one of the best of the French varieties which were then coming to this country in great numbers, but it is now almost lost to cultivation. While in no way remarkable, the variety is too valuable to be discarded. As the color-plate shows, the fruits are prepossessing in appearance. The pears are bright yellow, with a brilliant cheek, the whole fruit being more or less mottled with golden russet. Few pears are smoother of skin or more symmetrical in shape, and the fruits are more uniform in size than those of most varieties. The quality, as well as the appearance, is pleasing. While the flesh is a little dry and not as rich in flavor as that of most other varieties of its season, it is so crisp and refreshingly piquant in contrast to the sweeter, buttery pears with which it ripens, its season being just after that of Bartlett, that the variety finds favor with all who like pears. The variety fails in its tree-characters. Thus, the trees are late in coming in bearing; are not very vigorous; are somewhat tender to cold; and do not resist blight well. The variety has little value for commercial places, but if the trees can be obtained, is well worth planting in the home orchard.
This pear is a chance seedling found by M. Maurier near Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France, nearly a century ago. It was propagated by M. Flon, a nurseryman of Angers and fruited first in 1839. In England and America the variety has been chiefly known as Duchesse d’Orléans, but many French horticulturists have used the name Saint-Nicolas. The variety was added to the fruit-catalog list of the American Pomological Society in 1862, but was dropped from the list in 1871.
Tree medium in size and vigor, spreading, moderately productive; trunk slender, shaggy; branches medium in thickness and smoothness, reddish-brown partly overspread with thin gray scarf-skin, with few indistinct lenticels; branchlets short, with short internodes, light brownish-red mingled with green and partly covered with thin, gray scarf-skin, dull, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, raised lenticels.
Leaf-buds long, narrow, sharply pointed, plump, free. Leaves 3 in. long, 1½ in. wide; apex taper-pointed; margin tipped with small, brownish glands, coarsely serrate; petiole 2 in. long, glabrous, reddish-green. Flower-buds long, conical, sharply pointed, free, singly on numerous short spurs; flowers showy, 1⅜ in. across, in dense clusters, average 7 buds in a cluster, the petals widely separated at the base; pedicels 7⁄16 in. long, slender, lightly pubescent.
Fruit matures in late September and October; medium in size, 2⅞ in. long, 2¼ in. wide, obovate-acute-pyriform, symmetrical; stem 1 in. long, thick; cavity lacking, the flesh drawn up in a symmetrical fold about the stem; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, narrow, acute; basin very shallow, narrow, obtuse, smooth or slightly wrinkled; skin thin, tender, smooth; color yellow overlaid with a red blush, faintly mottled with golden russet; dots numerous, whitish or russet, conspicuous; flesh tinged with yellow, firm, granular, crisp, juicy, subacid; quality good. Core small, closed, axile, with meeting core-lines; calyx-tube short, conical; seeds long, plump, acute.
