Duchesse D'Angoulême

Duchesse d'Angoulême.

Beurré Soulé.

A magnificent large dessert Pear, sometimes weighing a pound and a quarter, named in honor of the Duchess of Angoulême, and said to be a natural seedling, found in a forest hedge near Angers. When in perfection, it is a most delicious fruit of the highest quality. We are compelled to add, however, that the quality of the fruit is a little uncertain on young standard trees. The tree is a strong grower, the shoots upright, reddish yellow brown.

Fruit very large, oblong obovate, with an uneven, somewhat knobby surface. Skin dull greenish yellow, a good deal streaked and spotted with russet. Stalk one to two inches long, very stout, bent, deeply planted in an irregular cavity. Calyx set in a somewhat knobby basin. Flesh white, buttery, and very juicy, with a rich and very excellent flavor. Very good. October.

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

DUCHESSE D'ANGOULÊME

1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 171. 1832. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 381. 1845. 3. Ann. Pom. Belge 1:21, Pl. 1853. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 68. 1862. 5. Pom. France 1: No. 17, Pl. 17. 1863. 6. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 2, 79, fig. 136. 1866-73. 7. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:98, figs. 1869. 8. Jour. Hort. N. S. 24:26. 1873. 9. Guide Prat. 59, 267. 1876. 10. Hist. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1829-78. 224. 1880. 11. Hogg Fruit Man. 569. 1884.

Duchess of Angouleme. 12. Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 371. 1831. Angouleme. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 36. 1883. Herzogin von Angouleme. 14. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 46, Pl. 43. 1894.

The fruits of Duchesse d'Angoulême excite admiration and wonder by their enormous size. They may always be known by their great size, squat pyriform shape, and uneven knobby surfaces. Well grown, the pears have other virtues than size, as the flesh is buttery and melting with a rich and delicious flavor; but poorly grown, and on unfavorable soils, the flesh is granular, coarse-grained, but half-melting and nearly devoid of the richness that characterizes the fruits in happier situations. Size shrinks also when poorly grown, so that one may say that a small pear of this variety is seldom fit for dessert and too insipid for a good product in cookery. The trees are vigorous, hardy, and healthy, bear abundantly under favorable conditions, and succeed either as a standard or a dwarf. Possibly it is best grown as a dwarf, and in America at least is more often worked on the dwarfing quince than on the pear. In fact, this variety is the favorite dwarf-pear for garden and home orchard, and commercial orchards of dwarfed trees of it are not uncommon. On either stock, the tree makes a beautiful, symmetrical pyramid, comes in bearing early, and bears regularly. This variety is more popular in New York than in any other part of America, and while less planted than formerly, is still regarded as a standard late autumn variety. It is a particularly desirable sort for the pear-fancier.

The original tree of Duchesse d'Angoulême was a wilding growing in a garden near Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France. About 1808, M. Audusson, a nurseryman at Angers, appreciating the beauty and excellent quality of the pear, obtained the right to propagate it. In 1812 he began selling trees of the variety under the name of "Poire des Eparonnais." In 1820, M. Audusson sent a basket of the fruit to the Duchesse d'Angoulême with a request for permission to name the pear in her honor, a request which was granted. At the exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society held in 1830, Samuel G. Perkins showed a specimen which measured eleven and three-tenths inches. It was the only one that grew on the tree, and was considered to be the first fruit of this variety produced in America. The American Pomological Society added Duchesse d'Angoulême to its catalog-list of fruits in 1862.

Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, slow-growing, usually hardy, productive; trunk thick; branches stocky, shaggy, zigzag, dull reddish-brown overspread with scarf-skin, marked with small lenticels; branchlets thick, short, dull light brown, streaked with gray scarf-skin, smooth, glabrous, with many small, raised lenticels.

Leaf-buds small, short, conical, pointed, nearly free; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 2⅝ in. long, 1⅜ in. wide, oval, thick, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin marked with minute dark brown glands, crenate or nearly entire; petiole 1⅛ in. long. Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free, arranged singly or in small clusters on short branches and spurs; flowers 1⅜ in. across, 7 or 8 buds in each cluster; pedicels 1 in. long, slender, lightly pubescent, greenish.

Fruit ripe October to November; large, often very large, 4 in. long, 3 in. wide, uniform in size, oblong-obovate-pyriform, with irregular and uneven surface and with sides often unequal; stem frequently 1½ in. long, very thick, curved; cavity acute, deep, furrowed, irregular, often lipped; calyx partly open, small; lobes short, narrow, acute; basin medium to deep, abrupt, furrowed and uneven, often corrugated; skin thick, granular, roughened with russet; color dull yellow, streaked, spotted and netted with dull russet; dots numerous, russet, conspicuous; flesh white, firm becoming somewhat melting and quite tender when fully mature, granular, juicy, sweet, rich and delicious when fully mature; quality good to very good. Core closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds small, narrow, flat, acute, very often abortive.

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