FREDERICK CLAPP
1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 2nd App. 148, fig. 1876. 2. Mass. Hort. Soc. Rpt. Pt. II, 94. 1876. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 34. 1877. 4. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:245. 1903.
Clapp No. 22. 5. Mass. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 90. 1872. 6. Ibid. Pt. II, 153. 1874. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 38, 66, 119. 1875.
Frederick Clapp has a place on the pear list, because it is one of the few good varieties with acidulous fruits. The refreshing, piquant flavor, the tender, melting, very juicy flesh, and the bright lemon-yellow color with only a trace of red give sufficient charm and character to the fruits to make the variety desirable in every collection of good pears. The fruits come in season with those of Beurré Superfin, and surpass them in quality at least. The trees are vigorous and healthy and form open, shapely, wide-spreading heads that commend them for orchard management. They grow with rapidity and vigor, come in bearing early, and are unusually fruitful. The variety is seldom planted in commercial orchards, but it has a welcome place in every home orchard fortunate enough to have it.
This pear was raised about 1870 by Lemuel Clapp, Dorchester, Massachusetts, brother of Frederick and Thaddeus Clapp, all of whom were the producers of large numbers of pear seedlings, several of which have been named. In all probability this variety is a cross between Urbaniste and Beurré Superfin. At various exhibitions and meetings of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in the years 1872, 1874, 1875, and 1876 it was shown and favorably reported on, and in 1875 received high praise in a report of the Massachusetts State Fruit Committee to the American Pomological Society. In 1877 the latter Society added Frederick Clapp to its list of fruits recommended for general cultivation.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, with open top, hardy; trunk thick, shaggy; branches stocky, shaggy, zigzag, dull reddish-brown, overspread with thick ash-gray scarf-skin, marked with many small lenticels; branchlets thick, dull reddish-brown, tinged with green, smooth except for the lenticels, glabrous, with many small, raised lenticels.
Leaf-buds small, short, conical or pointed, plump, usually free. Leaves 3 in. long, 1¾ in. wide, ovate, stiff; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate, tipped with very fine, sharp-pointed, reddish-brown glands; petiole 1½ in. long, slender, glabrous. Flower-buds small, short, conical, plump, free; flowers cup-shaped, often with a disagreeable odor, 1 in. wide, averaging 9 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1 in. long, thick, pubescent, pale green.
Fruit ripe in October; medium in size, more than 2 in. long, 2⅜ in. wide, variable in size, roundish or obovate, irregular in shape; stem ¾ in. long, thick; cavity variable in outline and smoothness, often with a fleshy fold drawn up around the base of the stem; calyx open; lobes short, broad, obtuse; basin deep, wide, abrupt, usually smooth, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; color lemon-yellow, often marked with flecks and mottlings of russet; dots numerous, small, russet, obscure; flesh with a very faint tinge of yellow, fine, tender, melting, characteristically juicy, sweet, with a rich sprightliness; quality very good. Core closed, axile, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube very short, wide, broadly conical; carpels obovate; seeds large, wide, long, plump, acute.
