Bergamotte d’Automne. 1. Duhamel. Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:165, Pl. XXI. 1768. 2. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:223, fig. 1867.
Rote Bergamotte. 3. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 271. 1889.
Authorities fail to agree on the origin of this pear. Benedictus Curtius, a Florentine author writing in 1536, thought it had birth at Bergamo in Lombardy. But in 1644, Jean Bodaeus, a Dutch physician, in his translation of the Historia Plantarum of Theophrastus, states that the Bergamote came from Asia, whence the Romans had imported it to Italy and that it was known to them as the Pirum Regium or pear of Kings. If it originated in Asia, the probability is that its birth-place was Pergamum, a village of Asia Minor between the Ægean and Marmora seas. This view was accepted in the eighteenth century by such authorities as Lacour, Henri Manger and Ménage, and later by Leroy. Fruit medium; variable but usually globular-oblate, greenish-yellow, dotted and striped with russet, flesh whitish, fine, melting, generally gritty, sweet, savory; first; Oct. to Jan.
Bergamotte Bouvant. 1. Guide Prat. 103. 1895.
Listed as a new variety in 1895. Fruit medium; flesh fine, melting, juicy, well sweetened and pleasantly perfumed; Apr. and May.
Bergamotte Bufo. 1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:228, fig. 1867. 2. Hogg Fruit Man. 498. 1884.
Kröten Bergamotte. 3. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 244. 1889.
Le Lectier says this pear was cultivated at Orleans in 1628 under the name of Crapant or Toad on account of the rough character of its skin. It was also known in Germany in 1690 under this latter name and as Oignon rosat by reason of its shape and the perfume of its juice. In 1846 in France, because of the supposed inelegance of the word “crapant,” its name was changed to Bufo, the Latin name of a toad. Fruit above medium, globular-oblate, even and regular like a true Bergamot; skin rough, dark yellow, dotted and marbled with fawn and usually also bearing some large brown stains; flesh white, melting, fine; juice sufficient, vinous, acidulous, sugary, savory, recalling the scent of the rose; excellent dessert pear; late Oct.
Bergamotte Bugi. 1. Langley Pomona 131, Pl. 46. 1729. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 5:9, fig. 293. 1880.
Bergamote du Bugey. 3. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:229, fig. 1867.