Pastorale
PearPastorale
Origin / History
Mayer, director of the gardens of the Grand Duke of Wurtzburg, Bavaria, described this pear in his Pomona franconica in 1776 and 1801. Duhamel du Monceau wrote of it in 1768 in the Traité des arbres fruitiers, volume 2, page 231, with plate LV. Earlier, Le Lectier spoke of its cultivation before 1628 under the name Musette d'Hiver rosate. Merlet called it Pastorale in 1675. La Quintinye named it Pastourelle and Musette d'Autumne in 1688. Hogg's Fruit Manual (1884, page 628) also lists it.
Tree
Not described in source.
Fruit
Size: Fruit above medium.
Form: Pyriform, slightly obtuse, much puckered at the summit, and generally larger on one side than on the other.
Stem: Not described in source.
Cavity: Not described in source.
Calyx: Not described in source.
Basin: Not described in source.
Skin: Greenish, nearly covered with gray-russet, vermilioned on the side of the sun.
Dots: Large brown dots, sprinkled over the surface.
Flesh and flavor: Whitish, semi-fine, more or less gritty around the core. Juice abundant, rather sugary, slightly acid.
Core and seeds: Not described in source.
Season
Nov. to Jan.
Uses
Not described in source.
Subtypes / Variants
Not described in source.
Other
Not described in source.
Book Sources
Described in 1 period pomological work
View original book sources (1)
— U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York (1921)Pastorale.
- Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:231, Pl. LV. 1768.
- Hogg Fruit Man. 628. 1884.
Mayer, director of the gardens of the Grand Duke of Wurtzburg, Bavaria, described this pear in his Pomona franconica in 1776 and 1801, and Duhamel du Monceau wrote of it in 1768. Earlier still Le Lectier spoke of its cultivation before 1628 under the name Musette d'Hiver rosate. Merlet called it Pastorale in 1675, and La Quintinye named it Pastourelle and Musette d'Autumne in 1688. Fruit above medium, pyriform, slightly obtuse, much puckered at the summit and generally larger on one side than on the other; skin greenish, nearly covered with gray-russet, sprinkled with large brown dots, vermilioned on the side of the sun; flesh whitish, semi-fine, more or less gritty around the core; juice abundant, rather sugary, slightly acid; Nov. to Jan.