Black Worcester

Black Worcester.

Black Pear of Worcester. Parkinson's Warden. Iron.

A market fruit esteemed for cooking. The branches incline downwards with the weight of the fruit. Young shoots dark yellow olive, diverging.

Fruit large, obovate or oblong pyriform. Skin thick, rough, green, nearly covered with dark russet. Flesh hard and coarse, but stews and bakes well. November to February.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)

Black Worcester,

1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 429. 1845.
2. Ibid. 702. 1869.
3. Hogg Fruit Man. 531. 1884.
4. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fruits 160. 1920. Worster. 5. Parkinson Par. Ter. 592. 1629. Black Pear of Worcester. 6. Langley Pomona 133, Pl. LXXI, fig. 2. 1729. Livre. 7. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:235. 1768.
5. Leroy Diet. Pom. 2:346. 1869. Iron Pear. 9. Cole Am. Fr. Book 174. 1849.

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.

— U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York (1921)

Black Worcester.

Black Pear of Worcester, | Parkinson's Warden, | Iron Pear.

A valuable and profitable variety for marketing and cooking purposes ; shoots, dark olive, diverging ; tree, hardy vigorous.

Fruit, large, obovate oblong ; color, dull green, with numerous marblings and specks of dark iron russet ; stem, stout, in a slight depression ; calyx, rather small ; flesh, firm, coarse, austere. November to February.

— F.R. Elliott, The Western Fruit Book (1865)

Black Worcester. (Iron Pear, Black Pear of Worcester.) Large pyriform (Diel-shaped), sometimes approaching oblong-ovate; surface mostly covered with dark rough russet on a light green surface; stalk half an inch to an inch and a half long; cavity none; calyx erect, basin small; flesh hard, coarse, rich, somewhat austere; stews and bakes well. An esteemed culinary sort, bearing heavy crops, and proving profitable for market. Late autumn till midwinter. Growth very crooked and straggling. Fig. 655.

— John J. Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)

BLACK WORCESTER. Her. Pom. II., 60. F. de Livre G. Konigsgeschenk von Neaple. Culinary, till April, large, 3¾ by 4. Shape round Bergamotte, uneven. Skin, rough, entirely covered with dark coppery brown russet. Flesh, pale yellow, crisp, flavourless and rather gritty. Stem, 1 inch, very stout and woody. Growth moderate. Fertility moderate. Eye nearly closed in a deepish uneven basin. This has been known in Worcester since the 16th century, where according to legend Queen Elizabeth saw it at Whystone Farm. It is, I think, almost certainly the Poire de Livre of Leroy, which has been known in France for several centuries, and which may even go back to Roman days. A good cooking pear, but not equal to Catillac, Double de Guerre and Bellissime d'Hiver.

— E.A. Bunyard, A Handbook of Hardy Fruits (1920)