KINGSESSING
1. Mag. Hort. 13:450. 1847. 2. Ibid. 19:453, 516, fig. 32. 1853. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 231. 1858. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 795. 1869.
A summing up of the characters of Kingsessing, as is so often the case with varieties of fruits, makes it appear a most desirable sort. Nevertheless, its culture does not make headway. Growers rate it as a “good pear,” but will not grow it, for the reason, no doubt, that it has no outstanding characters for any region, season, or purpose. As the pears grow on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station they are a little under size for a good commercial fruit, and while the sweet, perfumed flavor is pleasant, it lacks individuality. The variety is grown chiefly along the Atlantic Coast from Long Island to Maryland.
This is a natural seedling which sprang up in the family burial ground of Isaac Leech, Kingsessing, a suburb of Philadelphia, about 1833. The tree first fruited about 1843. Dr. Brincklé, who introduced the variety, thought from its close resemblance to Chapman that it was probably a seedling from it, or of its parent, the Petre, as trees of both these varieties stood in the vicinity of the Kingsessing. The American Pomological Society placed Kingsessing on its fruit-list in 1858 but dropped it in 1899.
Tree very large and vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, rapid-growing, hardy, medium in yield; trunk very thick; branches very stocky, grayish-brown, sprinkled with numerous large lenticels; branchlets thick, long, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous rather small, raised, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaf-buds large, long, conical, free. Leaves 2¼ in. long, 1⅜ in. wide; apex abruptly pointed; margin glandular, finely serrate; petiole 1¾ in. long. Flower-buds large, conical, free.
Fruit ripens in September and October; medium in size, 2⅜ in. long, 2⅛ in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform; stem ½ in. long, thick, usually curved, fleshy at the point of insertion in the fruit; cavity obtuse, shallow, slightly furrowed, occasionally lipped; calyx partly open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acute; basin shallow, gently furrowed, usually symmetrical; skin granular, tender, roughish; color yellow, sprinkled and netted with russet, with a thin brownish-red blush on the exposed cheek; dots numerous, grayish or russet, small, conspicuous; flesh white, granular, tender and melting, sweet, aromatic; quality good. Core closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds wide, long, plump, acute.
