Madeleine

Madeleine, or Citron des Carmes.

Madeleine. Sainte-Madelaine. Citron des Carmes. Grüne Sommer Magdalena. Early Chaumontelle. Grüne Magdalena. Magdelen.

The Madeleine is one of the most refreshing and excellent of the early Pears. It takes its name from its being in perfection, in France, at the feast of Ste. Madeleine. Citron des Carmes comes from its being first cultivated by the Carmelite monks. The tree is fruitful and vigorous, with long, erect, olive-colored branches.

Fruit of medium size, obovate pyriform. Stalk long and slender, often nearly two inches, set on the side of a small swelling. Pale yellowish green (very rarely with a little brownish blush and russet specks around the stalk). Calyx small, in a very shallow furrowed basin. Flesh white, juicy, melting, with a sweet and delicate flavor, slightly perfumed. Good to very good. Middle and last of July.

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

MADELEINE

1. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:124, Pl. IV. 1768. 2. Pom. Mag. 2:51, Pl. 1829. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 1:13. 1831. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 341, fig. 138. 1845. 5. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 6. Elliott Fr. Book 331, fig. 1854. 7. Mas Le Verger 2:59, fig. 28. 1866-73. 8. Guide Prat. 62, 287. 1876.

Sainte Madelaine. 9. Knoop Pomologie 76, Tab. I, fig. 1771.

Grüne Sommer-Magdalene. 10. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:150. 1856. 11. Lucas Tafelbirnen 47, fig. 1894.

Citron des Carmes. 12. Pom. France 3: No. 101, Pl. 101. 1865. 13. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:563, fig. 1867. 14. Hogg Fruit Man. 548. 1884. 15. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 212, fig. 1906.

Grüne Magdalene. 16. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 228. 1889.

Madeleine has long been a dependable summer variety, the crop of which ripens just before that of Bloodgood. Many consider it the best very early summer pear, and if the product alone were to be considered it might well be called the best, but, unfortunately, the faults of the trees more than offset the virtues of the fruits. The pears are attractive in appearance, and very good in quality; but their season is short, their skins are tender, and the flesh quickly softens at the core. While the trees are productive, they are not resistant to blight, do not hold their crop well, are tender to cold, and are short-lived. The variety is worth planting only for the sake of succession in crop, and in large collections of pears. The variety is recommended on the Pacific slope for local markets.

The Madeleine pear is of ancient and somewhat uncertain origin. It was cultivated by M. Le Lectier in his garden at Orleans in 1628, but previously no other author had made mention of it, though M. Leroy, writing in 1867, deemed it presumable that it had originated in France. Besides its original names this pear has been known by some fifty others in different localities and at different times, but Madeleine is now its recognized name in this country. In England, it is known as the Citron des Carmes. When and by whom it was introduced to America is not clear, but it was a standard variety as early as 1831 when Prince first described it. At the national convention of fruit-growers held in 1848, Madeleine was recommended for general cultivation, and ever since this time the variety has appeared in the fruit-catalog of the American Pomological Society.

Tree large, vigorous, upright, open-topped, tender, productive; trunk shaggy; branches zigzag, light greenish-brown covered with gray scarf-skin; branchlets slender, long, reddish-brown mingled with green, mottled with ash-gray near the tips, smooth, glabrous, with small, raised, conspicuous lenticels.

Leaf-buds small, very short, pointed, appressed. Leaves 3 in. long, 1½ in. wide, thin; apex taper-pointed; margin glandless, finely serrate; petiole 1⅝ in. long, glabrous, reddish-green. Flower-buds small, thick, short, conical, plump, free, distributed as lateral buds or on very short spurs; flowers showy, 1⅛ in. across, in dense clusters, average 11 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1¼ in. long, slightly pubescent.

Fruit ripens in early August; inferior in size, 2½ in. long, 2 in. wide, roundish-obtuse-pyriform; stem 1⅛ in. long, thick, curved; cavity very shallow and narrow, or lacking, the flesh folded in a lip on one side of the stem; calyx partly open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acuminate; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed, symmetrical; skin thin, smooth, very tender; color dull green, occasionally with a faint, dotted, brownish blush; dots numerous, greenish, obscure; flesh slightly tinged yellow, granular at the center, tender and melting, very juicy, sweet, vinous; quality good to very good. Core closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds wide, short, plump, acuminate.

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

MADELEINE.

Citron des Carmes, | Magdalen.

Foreign. Tree, very vigorous, strong grower, a little liable to frozen sap-blight on the rich Western soils, until it has acquired the age of ten or more years; very productive on pear or quince root.

Fruit, below medium, obovate, oblong pyriform: stem, long, slender, at base one side of fruit a little enlarged; color, pale yellowish green, a little brownish blush, and russet specks on those exposed most to sun; calyx, with long, persistent, irregularly placed segments; basin, obscure, slightly plaited; core, small; seeds, ovate; flesh, white, juicy, melting, sweet, slightly perfumed. Fifteenth to last July.

The Striped Madeleine Citron des Carmes Panachée, differs from the former in being striped with light yellow, flesh more sweet and less juicy. It is not as vigorous in growth, the wood shorter jointed, striped red and yellow, and said to be less liable to blight.

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

Madeleine.* (Citron des Carmes, Magdelen, Green Chisel, incorrectly.) Medium in size, slightly pyriform, conic-obovate; skin smooth, pale yellowish-green, rarely a faint brownish blush; stalk slender, an inch and a half long; cavity very narrow and small; basin shallow; flesh juicy and melting, usually faintly acid, with an agreeable, delicate, fine, refreshing flavor. Matures about midsummer, or at the time of wheat harvest. Needs house-ripening. Shoots straight, erect, greenish, growth vigorous; tree rather liable to blight. Leaves quite flat. Fig. 685. France.

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