Besi d’Héry. 1. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:139. 1768. 2. Hogg Fruit Man. 506. 1884.
Kümmelbirne. 3. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:7. 1856.
A wilding discovered in the forest of Héry or Héric in Brittany in the sixteenth century. The Bretons presented a basket of this fruit to King Henry IV on his visit to Brittany in 1598. Fruit medium, globular; skin thin, very smooth, bright green at first, changing when it ripens to pale yellow, with blush of red on the side next the sun, strewed with very minute points; flesh white, fine, semi-melting, generally gritty; juice sufficient, sweet, with somewhat of a Muscat perfume; first-rate cooking pear; Oct. to Jan. A good bearer in rich soil.
Besi Liboutton. 1. Field Pear Cult. 278. 1858. 2. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:277, fig. 1867.
Origin uncertain, but it was cultivated in the garden of the Horticultural Society of Angers, Fr., in 1844. Fruit medium, globular, regular in form, resembling an apple, deeply depressed at either pole, green turning slightly yellow at maturity, sprinkled with large dots and some fawn-colored stains; flesh white, fine, semi-melting, gritty; juice sufficient, sugary, vinous, rather pleasantly perfumed; second; mid-Aug. to mid-Sept.
Besi de Mai. 1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:278, fig. 1867.
Raised by J. de Jonghe, Brussels, from a seed bed made in 1845. Fruit large, obovate, rather uneven and irregular in its outline, bossed, greenish, streaked and dotted with brown fawn; flesh fine, white, melting, rather gritty; juice sufficient, sugary, acid, richly flavored; first; Apr. and May.
Besi de Moncondroiceu. 1. Mas Pom. Gen. 5:65, fig. 321. 1880.
According to Oberdieck, this variety was brought to him from the Château of Herrenhausen near Hanover. Fruit small, globular-ovoid, or irregularly round, often higher on one side than on the other, pale green, sown with points of gray-fawn; flesh whitish, semi-fine, melting, a little granular about the core, juicy, sugary, not much perfume; quality good but unstable, depending much on the season; Oct.