PASSE COLMAR
1. Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc. 5:410. 1824. 2. Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 403. 1831. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 1:101. 1831. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 444, fig. 205. 1845. 5. Gard. Chron. 185, fig. 1845. 6. Mag. Hort. 15:445, fig. 39. 1849. 7. Gard. Chron. 989. 1861. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 70, 1862. 9. Pom. France 1: No. 2, Pl. 2. 1863. 10. Mas Le Verger 1:121, fig. 59. 1866-73. 11. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:499, figs. 1869. 12. Guide Prat. 60, 293. 1876. 13. Hogg Fruit Man. 627. 1884. 14. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 436, fig. 1904.
Preul’s Colmar. 15. Liegel Syst. Anleit. 104. 1825.
Regentin. 16. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:103. 1856. 17. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 268. 1889. 18. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 61, Pl. 88. 1894.
Little known in America, this is one of the standard winter pears in England. The fruits are exceedingly sugary, mildly spiced with cinnamon, a flavor so unique, especially when compared with the piquant flavor most common in winter pears, that the variety is worth growing where it succeeds for the sake of diversity. The chief fault of the variety is variability of product. On unsuitable soils and under indifferent care, the pears are unattractive and poor in quality. The accompanying illustration, it is to be feared, shows the variety at its worst rather than at its best, since it does not thrive on the heavy, cold clay of the Station lands. Under conditions at this Station, the flesh is crisp and gritty, rather than buttery and fine as it seems to be under more suitable conditions. The trees are very vigorous on standard stocks and heavy soils, with the result that the fruits are many but small and poor; checking vigor by dwarfing on quince or planting on poor soil suits the variety. The trees are hardy and as free as the average pear from blight. The variety is a good winter sort for home or market.
This variety was raised in 1758 at Mons by the Abbé Hardenpont, the Belgian priest and horticulturist. Extensively cultivated in Belgium, it acquired a great diversity of names in different localities. From that country it passed first to Germany toward the end of the eighteenth century, and early in the nineteenth was taken to France. Soon after the close of the Napoleonic wars, about 1817, it was received in England. Within a few years after its introduction in England, the variety found its way to America where, for a time, it was quite extensively grown. The American Pomological Society added Passe Colmar to its fruit-list in 1862 but dropped it in 1899.
Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright, tall, rapid-growing, productive; trunk slender; branches medium in thickness and smoothness, reddish-brown almost entirely overspread with thick, gray scarf-skin, marked by large, conspicuous lenticels; branchlets thick, long, light brown mingled with green, dull, smooth, pubescent only near the ends of the new growth, sprinkled with few small, raised, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaf-buds short, plump, free, thick at the base; leaf-scars with prominent shoulders. Leaves 3 in. long, 1½ in. wide, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin tipped with few small glands, finely serrate to nearly entire; petiole 2 in. long, glabrous, pinkish-green. Flower-buds small, short, thick, conical, plump, free, singly as lateral buds or on very short spurs; flowers late, showy, 1¾ in. across, unusually large, in dense clusters, average 6 buds in a cluster; pedicels ¾ in. long, thick, thinly pubescent.
Fruit ripe December to January; medium in size, 2½ in. long, 2⅛ in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, somewhat irregular; stem 1 in. long, very thick; cavity obtuse, shallow, narrow, russeted, slightly furrowed; calyx partly open; lobes separated at the base, rather narrow, acute; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed; skin thick, granular, tender, roughish; color greenish-yellow, sprinkled with reddish-brown and russet patches and nettings; dots numerous, small, russet, obscure; flesh tinged with yellow, granular, tender, buttery, very juicy, sweet, vinous, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds large, wide, plump, acute.
