Scarlet Pearmain.

Bell's Scarlet Pearmain, | Oxford Peach.

Foreign. A good bearer, valued on poor, light soils Fruit, medium, conical, red on yellow ; stem, slender ; calyx, open ; flesh, white, crisp, juicy, sub-acid ; "good." September to October.

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

2. SCARLET PEARMAIN.

[Syn: Bell's Scarlet Pearmain; Bell's Scarlet; Hood's Seedling; Oxford Peach Apple?]

This apple is said to have been introduced by Mr. Bell, land steward to the Duke of Northumberland, at Sion, about the year 1800. It is figured in Ronalds' Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis, plate viii, fig. 2.

Description.—Fruit, medium sized, two inches and a half wide, and two inches and a quarter high; conical, regularly and handsomely shaped. Skin, smooth, tender and shining, of a rich deep bright crimson, with stripes of darker crimson on the side next the sun, and extending almost over the whole surface of the fruit, except where it is much shaded, and there it is yellow, washed, and striped with crimson, but of a paler colour, intermixed with a tinge of yellow, on the shaded side, and the whole surface sprinkled with numerous grey russety dots. Eye, open, with long reflexed segments, set in a round, even, and rather deep basin, which is marked with lines of russet. Stalk, from three quarters to an inch long, deeply inserted in a round, even, and funnel-shaped cavity, which is generally russety at the insertion of the stalk. Flesh, yellowish, with a tinge of red under the skin, tender, juicy, sugary, and vinous.

A beautiful well-shaped dessert apple, of first-rate quality; in season from October to January. "Its good qualities are not exceeded by its great beauty" (Transactions of London Horticultural Society, vol. vii, p. 335). It has a delicious flavour when eaten ripe from the tree in September or October. The tree grows well but slenderly, and require a rich loamy soil, or it is apt to canker. It attains about a middle size, and bears well. It succeeds well on the paradise stock, on which it forms a good dwarf or espalier tree.

— Woolhope Naturalists Field Club, The Herefordshire Pomona (1885)

Scarlet Pearmain. Bell's Scarlet Pearmain. Sigler's Red ? Oxford Peach. A showy dessert Apple, of English origin. Fruit medium sized, pearmain or conical shaped. Skin light crimson or yellow is the shade, rich crimson on the sunny side. Stalk nearly an inch long, deeply set. Flesh white, stained with a tinge of pink, crisp, juicy, subacid. Very good. In eating from the last of August to the tenth of October. A plentiful bearer.

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

Scarlet Pearmain. Medium, ovate conic, crimson; flesh white, good. Autumn. English.

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

SCARLET PEARMAIN. Ronalds, P. 8. F., Pearmain Ecarlate; G., Scharlach rote Parmane. (Bell's Scarlet, Melville Pippin, Oxford Peach.) Dessert, September to November, medium, 2¼ by 2¼, square-conical, regular. Colour, crimson scarlet flush with faint stripes. Flesh, tender, yellow, red tinged, of crab apple flavour. Eye, open, in a deepish basin. Stem, medium, in a narrow cavity. Growth, slender, rather spreading making a close twiggy tree; fertility good. Leaf, long, narrow, upfolded, coarsely serrate. Origin, introduced to notice about 1800, by Mr. Bell, Agent to the Duke of Northumberland. A useful fruit of distinct flavour, but should be eaten soon after gathering.

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

medium size, handsome, of a rich bright crimson, striped with a darker tint on the side next the sun, flesh juicy and nicely flavoured, useful and early, it forms a large pyramid and is suitable for orchards ... Sept. & Oct.

— James Veitch & Sons, Veitch's Fruit Trees (1911) (1911)