Urbaniste

Urbaniste.

Count Coloma. St. Marc? Beurré Picquery. Drapiez. Coloma d'Automne. Louise d'Orleans. Picquery. Louis Dupont. De l'Iver. Urbaniste Seedling.

The Urbaniste is a fruit which, in its delicious flavor, compares perhaps more nearly with the favorite old Doyenné or Virgalieu than any other fruit, and adds, when in perfection, a delicate perfume peculiarly its own. Its handsome size and remarkably healthy habit commend it for those districts where the Doyenné does not flourish. The tree is a moderately vigorous grower, and though it does not begin to bear so early as some varieties, it yields abundant and regular crops, and gives every indication of a long-lived, hardy variety. For the orchard or garden in the Middle States, therefore, we esteem it indispensable. With so many other fine sorts, we owe this to the Flemish, it having been originated by the Count de Coloma, of Malines. It was first introduced into this country in 1823. Young shoots upright, short-jointed, olive yellow brown.

Fruit of medium size, often large, obovate pyriform. Skin smooth and fair, pale yellow, with gray dots, and a few russet streaks. Stalk about an inch long, rather stout, and inserted in a well-marked or rather broad depression. Calyx small, closed, and set in a narrow basin, which is abruptly and rather deeply sunk. Flesh white, yellowish at the core, buttery, very melting and rich, with a copious delicious juice, delicately perfumed. Very good or best. Ripens from the last of September till the end of November, if kept in the house.

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

URBANISTE

1. Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc. 5:411. 1824. 2. Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 384. 1831. 3. Kenrick Am. Orch. 186. 1832. 4. Mag. Hort. 10:131, fig. 1844. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 417, fig. 190. 1845. 6. Gard. Chron. 68, fig. 1847. 7. Hovey Fr. Am. 2:21, Pl. 1851. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 53. 1852. 9. Pom. France, i: No. 32, Pl. 32. 1863. 10. Mas Le Verger 3:Pt. I, 193, fig. 95. 1866-73. 11. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 871, fig. 1869. 12. Guide Prat. 59, 308. 1876. 13. Hogg Fruit Man. 657. 1884. Urbaniste Samling. 14. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:116. 1856. Poire des Urbanistes. 15. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:712, fig. 1869. Coloma's Herbst Butterbirne. 16. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 197. 1889. 17. Lucas Tafelbirnen 109, fig. 1894.

Urbaniste is another variety desirable for home use because of its highly-flavored fruits — so sweet, rich, perfumed, and luscious as to be a natural sweetmeat. The fruits are of but medium size and not particularly handsome, but the taste excels the looks. The flesh is as tender, sweet, juicy, and as delicately perfumed as that of Seckel or White Doyenné, but with a distinct flavor and scent which give the fruits the added charm of individuality. The crop ripens in October, in a season when there are many other pears, but the fruits stand comparison with those of any other variety and are welcome additions to the fruit-basket. The trees have several defects, chief of which is tardiness in coming in bearing, to remedy which grafting on the quince is recommended. They are also susceptible to blight, and are not as hardy as might be wished. Of all pears, the tree of this variety is one of the handsomest — clean and tidy, slender and graceful, yet robust and productive. Fruit and tree make this a valuable variety for home plantings.

Urbaniste originated as a wilding in the gardens of the religious order of Urbanistes, Mechlin, Belgium. After the suppression of this order in 1783, their gardens remained uncultivated for some time and produced new seedlings of considerable merit. The beauty of one of these attracted the attention of Count de Coloma, a well-known pomologist, who acquired this property in 1786, and in due course propagated and disseminated the variety under the name Urbaniste. Early in the nineteenth century, Count de Coloma sent specimens of the pear to the London Horticultural Society, which organization afterwards distributed it in England about 1823. Thomas Andrew Knight sent cions to John Lowell, Roxbury, Massachusetts, through whom it became disseminated in the United States. The American Pomological Society added Urbaniste to its fruit-catalog list in 1852.

Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, slow-growing, productive with age; trunk slender, shaggy; branches stocky, shaggy, zigzag, reddish-brown, overspread with gray scarf-skin, sprinkled with numerous lenticels; branchlets long, reddish-brown mingled with grayish scarf-skin, smooth, zigzag, glabrous, marked with conspicuous, raised lenticels.

Leaf-buds large, obtuse, semi-free. Leaves 2½ in. long, ¾ in. wide, thin, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole 1½ in. long, slender. Flower-buds short, variable in shape, free.

Fruit ripe in late October and early November; medium in size, 2½ in. long, 2 in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, with unequal sides; stem ¾ in. long, short, thick; cavity obtuse, shallow, narrow, faintly russeted, furrowed, slightly lipped; calyx open; lobes separated at the base, narrow, obtuse; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, slightly furrowed; skin thick, tough, roughened by the russet nettings, dull; color pale yellow, often with a faint russet-red blush on the exposed cheek and marked with nettings and patches of russet; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh tinged with yellow, granular especially around the core, tender and melting, buttery, juicy, sweet, pleasantly aromatic; quality very good. Core closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds medium in size and width, long, plump, acute.

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

THE URBANISTE PEAR.

Urbaniste. London Hort. Soc. Catalogue, 3d Ed. 1842. Beurré du Roi, of some foreign Collections. Beurré Picquery, } of some French and Belgian Collections. Louise d'Orleans, }

The Urbaniste is, undeniably, one of our very best autumn pears. Under good culture, it is full as large as the Louise Bonne of Jersey, and ripens immediately after that variety. The late Mr. R. Manning, after some years' experience, thought the Urbaniste, of all the European pears, the best substitute for the old Saint Michael or White Doyenne. We have long been familiar with it, and have seen it under all kinds of cultivation, and do not hesitate to pronounce it as unsurpassed among the autumn pears.

For the early introduction of this fine variety we are indebted to the Hon. J. Lowell, who in 1823, then corresponding secretary of the Mass. Agricultural Society, opened a correspondence with Mr. Knight, President of the London Hort. Society. Mr. Knight, with that liberality which was always a characteristic of his life, immediately forwarded trees and scions of ten varieties of pears, among them the Urbaniste. From Mr. Lowell's garden scions were disseminated, and it is now one of the most generally cultivated of the new foreign pears. The Urbaniste was raised by the Count de Coloma, of Malines, who first sent specimens of the fruit to the London Hort. Society in 1823.

That a pear of so much merit should not have acquired any synonymes until within a few years, is somewhat remarkable, though fortunate for cultivators. Within five or six years, it has been disseminated from the French nurseries as the Beurré Picquery, which, by some, is still believed to be a different fruit; but the latest error is that of Bivort, who named and described a pear as the Louise d'Orleans, supposed to be a late seedling of Van Mens, which, after fruiting, proves to be only the Urbaniste. Such mistakes, by such a pomologist as Bivort, should caution us to look with distrust upon similar descriptions of new fruits.

The Urbaniste is a vigorous though rather slender growing tree, with numerous lateral branches, which clothe the trunk from top to bottom. It is late in coming into bearing on the pear, but succeeds admirably on the quince.

Tree.—Moderately vigorous, upright, regularly branched from the base; annual shoots rather slender, straight, of medium length,

Wood.—Light brownish olive, sprinkled with small whitish dots, and short-jointed; old wood, grayish olive; buds, medium size, oval, rather blunt, diverging: Flower-buds, small, obtuse.

Leaves.—Medium size, ovate, largest in the middle, narrow, thick, yellowish green, glossy, slightly folded inwards, deeply and finely serrated; petioles, medium length, about one inch long, rather slender.

Flowers.—Small; petals, narrow, wavy; claw, long.

Fruit.—Large, three and a half inches long, and three inches in diameter: Form, obovate, regular, large in the middle, rounding off to the eye, and obtuse at the stem: Skin, fair, smooth, pale yellowish green, with occasional patches of russet, often slightly tinged with blush on the sunny side, and dotted with russet specks: Stem, medium length, about three quarters of an inch long, stout, thick, with an uneven surface, and inserted in a slight cavity: Eye, rather large, and slightly depressed in a small shallow basin; segments of the calyx short: Flesh, white, fine, melting, and very juicy: Flavor, rich, sugary, sprightly, perfumed and delicious: Core, large: Seeds, medium size.

Ripe in October, and keeps four or five weeks.

— C.M. Hovey, The Fruits of America (1852)

Urbaniste.

St. Marc, | Louise of Orleans, | Beurré Picquery.

Foreign. Moderately vigorous, healthy, hardy, well suited to rich soils West; young shoots, upright, short-jointed, grayish yellow; not an early bearer, but when in bearing produces regularly and abundant. Fine grower and bearer on Quince.

Fruit, medium, obovate pyriform; color, pale yellow, with gray dots, and a few russet streaks; stem, about an inch long, rather stout; cavity, shallow; calyx, small, generally closed; basin, narrow, abrupt; core, medium or small; seeds, obovate pointed; flesh, white, yellowish, buttery, melting, vinous. October and November.

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

Urbaniste.* (Beurré Piquery.) Medium or rather large, conic-pyriform, obtuse and short, often approaching obovate; skin pale yellow or greenish, faintly russeted; stalk an inch long, stout, moderately and sometimes considerably sunk; calyx erect or closed; basin distinct, even; flesh melting, buttery, with a fine, delicious flavor, and a perceptible shade of acid. In unfavorable localities, it is sometimes of moderate quality. Middle and late autumn. Does not come soon into bearing. Shoots slender, greenish-yellow, leaves narrow, recurved. Belgium. Fig. 661.

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