Details for: PI 279334, Pyrus communis L., 'Epargne'

Jargonelle (of the English). (Robert Thompson, 1842; George Lindley, 1831; The Pomological Magazine, 1831). Epargne (of Duhamel), Grosse Cuisse Madame, Beau Present, Poire de tables des princes, Saint Sampson, Saint Lambert, Frauenschenkel, Real Jargonelle, Sweet Summer. This fruit, the true Jargonelle pear, was for a long time considered the finest of Summer pears, and thompson yet says 'the best of its season.' We think, that no man will hesitate, however, to give the most decided preference to our native sorts, the Bloodgood, and Dearborn's Seedling. It is still, however, one of the most common fruits in the New York market, partly, because it bears abundant crops, and partly, because these superiour new sorts, have scarcely yet, nad time to displace it. We consider it only a second rate fruit, and one that quickly decays at the core. - Fruit pretty large, long pyriform, tapering into the stalk. Skin greenish-yellow, smooth, with a little brownish colour on the sunny side. Stalk nearly two inches long, rather slender, curved, obliquely set. Calyx open, with quite long projecting segments, and sunk in a small and furrowed basin. The flesh is yellowish-white, rather coarse grained, juicy, with a sprightly, refreshing flavour. The tree is a strong grower, with a rather straggling, pendant habit. Ripens the last of July and the first of August. - The common Cuisse Madame of the French authors and gardens, is an inferiour and smaller variety of Jargonelle, not worth cultivating. It has long, straight, rather slender, brownish-red branches, while the true Jargonelle has long straggling, dangling branches. The blossoms of the latter are also unusually large. [See also Windsor Pear] (*Although called by Thompson the English Jargonelle, to distinguish it from the fruit molre common under that name on the continent, there is no doubt that it was introduced originally from France. Antiquarians derive its name from Gergon, Italian, a corruption of Graecum, whence Merlet supposes it to be the Numidianum Graecum of Pliny, and the Graeculum of Macrobius. This, if correct, would prove it to be a very ancient sort.) -- A.J. Downing The fruits and fruit trees of America, 1846.

Epargne. This is a pear of a long shape, below the ordinary size, diminishing gradually towards the stem, which is about an inch in length, large, an dplanted rather on one side - the crown is not hollowed; the skin is of a greenish cast, blotched with spots of a fawn colour, and sometimes with a little blush - the flesh is melting; the juice sprightly and agreeable - it ripens about the beginning of August. -- W. Coxe, A view of the cultivation of fruit trees, 1817.