Basin shallow, regular or plaited, leather-cracked; Eye small, closed.
Cavity shallow, acute, often lipped; Stem medium.
Core round, regular, closed, meeting the eye; Seeds numerous, angular, pointed; Flesh yellow, tender, melting, fine-grained, juicy; Flavor sub-acid, rich; Quality best; Use, table, kitchen; Season, December, February.
Red Russet.
Origin Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.
Tree very vigorous and productive; resembling Baldwin in almost every particular.
"Fruit large, roundish, conic; Skin yellow, shaded with dull red and deep carmine in the sun, and thickly covered with gray dots, and an appearance of rough russet on most of the surface; Stalk rather short and thick, inserted in a medium cavity, surrounded with thin russet; Calyx nearly closed; Segments long, recurved, in a narrow, uneven basin; Flesh yellow, solid, crisp, tender, with an excellent, rich, sub-acid flavor, somewhat resembling Baldwin; Season, January to April."—Downing.
This fruit is rarely seen in the West. It has been thought by some to have originated as a sport from the Baldwin.
Rolen's Keeper.
