Fruit small, obovate, curved, uneven and irregular in its outline; skin smooth, of a uniform lemon; flesh yellow, fine-grained, firm, melting and juicy, with a very rich, sugary flavor; its delicious flavor compensates for its small size; Nov. and Dec.
Rousselet de Meestre. 1. Hogg Fruit Man. 639. 1884.
Fruit large, obtuse-pyriform or pyramidal; skin smooth and shining, golden yellow, thickly dotted all over with large brown-russet freckles; flesh semi-buttery, firm, fairly juicy, and well flavored; of indifferent quality.
Rousselet Panaché. 1. Guide Prat. 80. 1876. A variegated variety of French origin and new about 1825. Fruit small, short-ovate, greenish-yellow, with light and dark streakings; first for dessert and household; end of Sept.
Rousselet de Pomponne. 1. Mas Pom. Gen. 6:67, fig. 418. 1880.
Obtained by MM. Pradel, nurserymen at Montauban, Fr. Fruit small, globular-ovate or nearly globular, even in outline, pale green at first, sprinkled with numerous large, regularly spaced dots of gray circled with darker green, changing at maturity to pale yellow and washed on the side opposed to the sun with bright rosy-red on which the dots are blood-red; flesh white, semi-breaking; juice sufficient, saccharine, with little flavor; second; mid-Aug.
Rousselet Précoce. 1. Mag. Hort. 18:151. 1852. 2. Mas Pom. Gen. 6:91, fig. 430. 1880.
This is the variety known in Germany as Frühe Geishirtlebirne and must be distinguished from the Rousselet hâtif or Poire de Chypre of Duhamel. It was classed in 1851 by Mr. Cabot, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, among the new or recently introduced fruits. Fruit rather small, pyriform, regular in contour, vivid green slightly touched with yellow, sprinkled with very numerous, very small, gray dots, changing at maturity to lemon-yellow, preserving sometimes a tone of green, the side next the sun being washed with blood-red spots having yellow centers; flesh whitish, fine, tender, semi-buttery, juicy, saccharine, and scented with the perfume of the Rousselets; good; mid-July.
Rousselet de Rheims. 1. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:147, Pl. XI. 1768. 2. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fr. 196. 1920.