Oregon 18 (PI 541295).-Originated in Medford, Oregon, by F.C. Reimer, Oregon Agriculture Experiment Station. Introduced in 1939. Open-pollinated seedling of a French seedling (Pyrus communis); selected in 1926; tested as Oregon P-18. Fruit: small; flesh hard, astringent; of no commercial value. Rootstock: fire blight resistant; used as parent for rootstock breeding studies. - Brooks and Olmo Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties. The Southern Oregon Experiment Station made a concerted attempt to find fire blight resistant root and framework stocks from 1923 and 1931. Over 10,000 French P. communis seedlings were grown and repeatedly inoculated with the blight organism, and after 5-6 years only ten trees survived. These seedlings were capable of transmitting blight resistance to a high percentage of their progeny, particularly when cross pollinated with other blight resistant pears. The best of the resistant seedlings were W-1, W-2, P-18, P-30, P-61, P-70 and P-87 (F. Reimer 1950. Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 485). - H. Hartman, 1957