The Romans cultivated a Pound Pear during the first century of the Christian era. In 1652 Claude Mollet describes a Pound Pear. Several subsequent writers describe the same pear as Livre, De Livre, or Poire de Livre. In Worcester, Eng., in the sixteenth century a pear known as Black Worcester, Black Pear of Worcester, or Parkinson’s Warden came under general cultivation as a “Warden” or baking pear of which it forms the type. These two pears appear to be identical. Mas makes Black Worcester a synonym of De Livre, Hogg states that they very much resemble each other, the authors of Guide Pratique de l’Amateur de Fruits list them as synonymous, and Bunyard says that he believes that they are almost certainly identical. Black Worcester is retained as the name of the variety because it is now most commonly used. Tree vigorous, hardy, bears well as a standard; young shoots dark yellow-olive, diverging; branches inclining downward with the weight of the fruit. Fruit large, obovate; skin thick, green, rough, nearly covered with dark russet, occasionally with a dull tinge next the sun; calyx small, nearly closed, set in a wide and rather deep basin; stem about an inch long, very stout, woody, inserted without depression; flesh pale yellow, hard, crisp, coarse, flavorless, rather gritty; a good cooking pear; Nov. to Feb.
Blackeney Red. 1. Hogg Fruit Man. 531. 1884.
A second-rate perry pear much used in Herefordshire, Eng. Fruit medium, obovate, greenish-yellow, more or less deep red on the side next the sun; flesh firm, crisp, juicy and mildly acid.
Blanquet Anastère. 1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:443, fig. 1867. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 703. 1869.
Raised by M. Goubault, a nurseryman at Angers, Fr., in 1840. Fruit small, pyriform but rather variable, form oblong to turbinate-ovoid, but always rather more swelled on one side than on the other; color pale green in the shade, dotted with gray but passing to greenish-yellow on the sun-exposed side which is also generally colored with vermilion; flesh white, half-fine, granular and breaking, juicy, sugary, with a delicate and characteristic aroma; second; July.
Blanquet Long. 1. Mas Le Verger 2:217, fig. 107. 1866-73.
Obtained in the garden of the Horticultural Society of Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Fr. Fruit small, long-ovate, bright green passing at maturity to pale yellow, washed with blood-red on the side next the sun; flesh white, fine, almost buttery, with abundant, sweet juice, refreshing and perfumed; good; early July.
Blanquet à Longue Queue. 1. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:131. 1768. 2. Mas Le Verger 2:233, fig. 15. 1866-73.
Of very ancient and unknown origin, mentioned by various French authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Fruit small, ovate-pyriform, bossed and corrugated at summit, smooth, pale yellow, slightly streaked with tender rose on the sun-touched cheek; flesh white, semi-fine, melting, seldom gritty, juicy, acidulous, sweet, with a slightly musky and delicate perfume; second; end of July and Aug.
Blanquet Précoce. 1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:446, fig. 1867. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 7:19, fig. 490. 1881.