Jargonelle (French)

Origin/History

Jargonelle (French) is said to have originated in Anjou, a former province in France, where it was much cultivated and highly esteemed toward the end of the fifteenth century. It is a very old sort, and its name reflects the broader French usage of "Jargonelle" to denote a group of pears — a fact that accounts for considerable confusion among the names and synonyms of several varieties of this class. Jargonelle (French) is distinct from the older, superior variety known simply as Jargonelle. A generation before Hedrick's writing (1921), Jargonelle (French) was much grown in America but had given way to better sorts. Coxe (1817) described it under the name Cuisse Madame.

Tree

The tree is large, vigorous, and upright, with the younger branches inclined to droop. It is very productive. Branches are stocky and dark reddish-brown. Branchlets are often curved and drooping, short, and sprinkled with elongated, inconspicuous lenticels. Coxe additionally notes that the tree is very liable to have its fruit blown off by wind.

Leaf-buds are large, conical, and appressed. Leaves are oval, enlarged at the base, with an abruptly pointed apex and coarsely serrate margin; the petiole is long and thick. Coxe describes the leaves as being of common size, almost as wide as they are long, and very little indented.

Flower-buds are large and long-conic. Flowers are medium in size.

Fruit

Size and Form: Medium to sometimes large; 3¼ inches long, 2¼ inches wide (Hedrick). Obtuse-pyriform to oblong-pyriform. Coxe describes the fruit as very long and small towards the stalk.

Stem: 1 inch long, slender, obliquely inserted. Coxe notes that the stalk generally grows in a furrow or small hollow.

Cavity: Obtuse, very shallow.

Calyx: Small, open; lobes long and projecting.

Basin: Variable in depth, small, irregular, furrowed. Coxe describes the eye as small and but little sunk.

Skin: Smooth and glossy. Hedrick gives the color as lemon-yellow, blushed with red on the sunny side, occasionally marbled with thin orange-russet about the neck. Coxe describes the color as yellowish green with a reddish brown cheek next the sun.

Dots: Light greenish or russet (Hedrick).

Flesh and Flavor: White, coarse, juicy, sweet, and aromatic (Hedrick). Coxe describes the flesh as sweet and juicy, a little musky. Despite these pleasant attributes, Hedrick rates the quality only as good, and elsewhere characterizes the variety as poor in quality, noting that the pears are edible for only a day or two after maturity, as they quickly rot at the center and become dry and mealy toward the periphery. The pears are described as handsome in appearance.

Core and Seeds: Core large. Seeds dark brown, small, narrow, long, often abortive.

Season

Conflicting accounts: Coxe gives the time of ripening as the end of July. Hedrick states that the fruit ripens in August and September.

Uses

Primarily a fresh-eating pear, but with a very narrow window of palatability — edible for only a day or two after maturity before the center rots and the outer flesh becomes dry and mealy. Coxe's description implies a table fruit of some merit, valued for its sweetness and musk. Hedrick regards the variety as having been superseded by better sorts.

Subtypes/Variants

Not described in source.

Other

Hedrick notes that this old sort is worthy of description chiefly to distinguish it from the much better and older pear of the same name — the Jargonelle proper, which is a distinct and superior variety. The name Jargonelle (French) was much grown in America a generation before Hedrick's 1921 account but had declined in cultivation by that time.