PITMASTON
1. Can. Hort. 26:129, fig. 2564. 1903. 2. Ont. Dept. Agr. Fr. Ont. 173, fig. 1914.
Pitmaston Duchesse d’Angoulême. 3. Gard. Chron. 1108, fig. 1864. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 55. 1871.
Pitmaston Duchess. 5. Jour. Hort. N. S. 18:11, fig. 1870. 6. Tilton Jour. Hort. 7:239, fig. 1870. 7. Jour. Hort. N. S. 38:201, fig. 30. 1880. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 631. 1884. 9. Gard. Chron. 3rd Ser. 4:608. 1888. 10. Rev. Hort. 196, 651. 1900. 11. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fr. 193. 1920.
Although this fine old English pear has more than ordinary merit, it seems to be little grown in America. In appearance, the pears are unsurpassed. The accompanying color-plate shows the shape and color very well, but not the size, as, well grown, the pears are larger. From the illustration, all must agree that the pears are handsome, fruits of few other sorts being so alluring in shape and color. On warm soils or in warm seasons, the flavor is choicely good giving the pears a rating of “good to very good;” but in cold soils and seasons, the flavor is often austere, or even acid and astringent. The season prolongs that of Bartlett, and as the fruits are flavored very differently, being more piquant and refreshing, and are ordinarily larger and handsomer, Pitmaston ought to make a good market variety where it thrives. The subacid flavor makes this one of the very best pears for culinary purposes. Such reports as are at hand state that the fruits keep and ship well. The variety seems not to have been grown widely in America, so that one cannot speak with assurance of the tree-characters; but on the grounds of this Station, the trees have fewer faults than those of most of the standard varieties. They are hardy, vigorous, fairly immune to blight, and while but moderately productive, bear annually, and the large size of the fruits makes them high yielders. The variety should be put on probation by those who grow for the markets, and is well worthy a place in all home orchards.
Pitmaston was raised by John Williams at Pitmaston, near Worcester, England, in 1841. It has been generally stated that it originated from a cross between Duchesse d’Angoulême and Glou Morceau, although an old gardener, who was employed by Mr. Williams, stated that there was no record whatever of its parentage, but that it was the best of a number of seedlings. For some time it was known as the Pitmaston Duchesse d’Angoulême on account of the theory of its derivation in part from the Duchesse d’Angoulême; but in 1870 its name was simplified in England to Pitmaston Duchess. In 1874 it obtained a first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society, England. In this country it was first fruited by John Saul, Washington, District of Columbia, in 1870, and was noted and illustrated by Elliott in the Rural New Yorker under the name Pitmaston Duchesse d’Angoulême. Although favorably mentioned several times by the American Pomological Society, the variety has never received a place in the Society’s fruit-catalog.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, dense-topped, moderately productive; trunk stocky, shaggy; branches thick, slightly zigzag, reddish-brown, overlaid with very dark grayish scarf-skin, marked with numerous large lenticels; branchlets long, dull, dark reddish-brown, roughish, glabrous, with numerous small, raised, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaf-buds short, obtuse, appressed; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 2½ in. long, 1½ in. wide, leathery; apex abruptly pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole 1¾ in. long. Flower-buds short, conical, pointed, free; flowers showy, 1¾ in. across, well distributed, average 7 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1 in. long, pubescent.
Fruit ripe in October; large, 3¾ in. long, 3 in. wide, oblong-obovate-pyriform, symmetrical; stem 1 in. long, thick, often curved; cavity very shallow and very narrow, or lacking, the flesh drawn up in a wrinkled fold around the base of the stem, often lipped; calyx closed, large; lobes long, broad, acute; basin shallow, obtuse, furrowed and wrinkled; skin thin, granular, smooth, tender, dull; color pale lemon-yellow, dotted and somewhat patched with light russet especially around the stem, without blush; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh tinged with yellow, somewhat granular, melting, buttery, very juicy, piquant and vinous; quality good to very good. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds narrow, long, flat, acute, very often abortive.
