Beurré d’Arenberg, in the opinion of some European writers, holds first place among the pears produced by French and Belgian pomologists. Unfortunately, Beurré d’Arenberg and Glou Morceau are often mistaken the one for the other. Beurré d’Arenberg was raised by Monseigneur Deschamps, Abbé of the Orphan Hospital, Enghien, Belgium. At about the same time, M. Noisette, a nurseryman of Paris, sent out Glou Morceau, which he had procured from the gardens of the Duc d’Arenberg, under the name Beurré d’Arenberg, so that there were two distinct varieties in cultivation under the same name. The true Beurré d’Arenberg of the Abbé Deschamps came to this country about 1827, having been sent over by Thomas Andrew Knight, President of the London Horticultural Society, to the Hon. John Lowell of Boston. The American Pomological Society recommended this variety for cultivation in 1848, but in 1871 the name disappeared from the Society’s catalog.
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, very hardy and very productive; trunk and branches medium in thickness and smoothness; branchlets slender, short, light brown mingled with green, smooth, glabrous, with numerous, small, raised lenticels. Leaf-buds small, short, plump, free; leaf-scars with prominent shoulders. Leaves 3 in. long; 1⅜ in. wide; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless, finely serrate; petiole 1⅞ in. long. Flower-buds small, short, sharply pointed, free, singly on short spurs.
Fruit ripe December to January; large, obovate-pyriform, ribbed; stem 1 in. long, thick, fleshy at the base, obliquely inserted; cavity lacking, drawn up in an oblique lip about the stem; calyx small, closed; lobes short, sometimes lacking; basin deep, smooth; skin roughish, thick, uneven; color yellow, with patches and tracings of russet especially around the calyx end; dots numerous, cinnamon-russet; flesh white, very juicy, melting, vinous or acidulous; quality very good. Core large; seeds large, roundish, plump.
BEURRÉ BOSC
1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 161. 1832. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 358, fig. 152. 1845. 3. Proc. Nat. Cong. Fr. Gr. 29, 51. 1848. 4. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:65, Pl. 1851. 5. Ann. Pom. Belge 5:79, Pl. 1857. 6. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:320, fig. 1867. 7. Hogg Fruit Man. 514. 1884.
Bosc’s Butterbirne. 8. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:100. 1856.
Beurré d’Apremont. 9. Pom. France 1: No. 26, Pl. 26. 1863. 10. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 2, 65, fig. 129. 1866-73. 11. Guide Prat. 48, 230. 1895.