Bergamotte Silvange was found in the woods of the Metz district, Lorraine, about the middle of the eighteenth century. The fruit is very variable in form and quality so that writers have been led to speak of three sorts of pears called Silvange—the yellow, the long, and the green. Fruit medium, globular-turbinate or obovate or of Bergamot shape; skin rough, bright green on the shaded side, darker where exposed to the sun, sprinkled with large, gray dots and stained with dark patches; flesh tinged with greenish-white near the center and yellowish-green near the skin, tender and melting, full of perfumed juice, saccharine, acidulous and possessed of an exquisite flavor; first; Oct. and Nov.
Bergamotte de Souchait. 1. Mas Pom. Gen. 6:99, fig. 434. 1880.
Of uncertain origin, though Mas suggests that it may have been raised in Germany. Fruit medium, globular-ovate, pale green, strewn with large, brown dots and stained with some patches of russet; on ripening the basic green becomes lemon-yellow and warm gold, the side next the sun being washed with vermilion on which are some grayish dots; flesh yellowish, half-tender, half-breaking, dry, sugary and highly perfumed with musk; second or third; July and first of Aug.
Bergamotte de Soulers. 1. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:168, Pl. XLIV, fig. 1. 1768. 2. Hogg Fruit Man. 504. 1884.
Bonne de Soulers. 3. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:487, fig. 1867.
This pear is an old French dessert fruit the first mention of which was by Merlet in 1675 who described it as a species of winter Bergamotte of good flavor and long keeping. Fruit medium, long-obovate, almost oval; skin smooth, shining, pale greenish-yellow, covered with dots of fawn and faintly tinged with brick-red on the side next the sun; flesh white, tender, melting, free from granulations, juicy, saccharine, slightly acidulous, with a characteristic and pleasant flavor; in France, of first quality and considered superior to Easter Beurré; in England only second, being too tender for the climate; Jan. to Mar. or Apr.
Bergamotte de Stryker. 1. Mas Le Verger 3:Pt. 1, 69, fig. 33. 1866-73. 2. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:261, fig. 1867.
This variety is generally attributed to M. Parmentier, Enghien, Bel. Fruit small, globular, slightly flattened at the base and mammillate at the summit, yellow-ochre, finely dotted with bright gray and stained with russet patches; flesh yellowish, tender, semi-melting and very full of juice which is watery, sweet and pleasantly aromatic; first in France, second in England; end of Sept. and Oct.
Bergamotte Suisse Rond. 1. Knoop Fructologie 1:86, 134, Pl. 1771.
This pear resembles the ordinary Autumn Bergamot except in color which is green at first, becoming yellow as it attains maturity, streaked with yellow and red. Sept. and Oct.