This old French sort is sparingly grown in New York, and is still listed by a few American nurserymen. The pears are handsome and very good in quality, but they quickly soften at the center and neither keep nor ship well. While usually of medium size, or sometimes large, the pears often run small. The variety is well worth planting in a collection, but has no value in a commercial plantation, and there are many better sorts for home orchards. [Illustration: ANDRÉ DESPORTES] The parent tree of this variety grew in the seed beds of M. André Leroy, the well-known authority on pomology, at Angers, France. M. Leroy obtained it in 1854 from pips of Williams' Bon Chrétien, or as it is better known here, the Bartlett pear. He named it after the son of M. Baptiste Desportes, manager of the business department of his establishment. The vigor and high quality of the fruit were quickly appreciated, and the variety was soon disseminated far and wide. Tree characteristically upright and vigorous, rapid-growing, hardy, productive; branches slender, smooth, light brown overlaid with thin, grayish scarf-skin, marked with small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, with short internodes, reddish-brown, slightly streaked toward the tips with ash-gray scarf-skin, dull, smooth, glabrous, with numerous small, but very conspicuous, raised lenticels. Leaf-buds large, pointed, plump, appressed. Leaves 2-3/4 in. long, 1-5/8 in. wide, ovate, stiff, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandular, slightly crenate; petiole 1-1/2 in. long. Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds or on short spurs; flowers showy, 1-1/4 in. across, occasionally tinged pink, in dense clusters, averaging 9 flowers per cluster; pedicels 3/4 in. long, thick, pubescent. Fruit ripe in August; medium in size, 2-7/8 in. long, 2-1/4 in. wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, symmetrical, uniform; stem 1 in. long, thick, curved; cavity obtuse, shallow, dotted with russet, often lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acute; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, gently furrowed, symmetrical; skin thin, tender, smooth; color dull greenish-yellow, dotted and marbled with reddish-brown, blushed on the sunny side; dots numerous, small, light colored, obscure; flesh tinged with yellow, fine, tender and melting, buttery, juicy, sweet, aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds small, wide, plump, acute. [Illustration: ANSAULT] ANSAULT =1.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 36. 1883. =2.= _Can. Hort._ =24=:454, fig. 2169. 1901. _Bonne du Puits-Ansault._ =3.= Leroy _Dict. Pom._ =1=:486, fig. 1867. =4.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 1st App. 123, fig. 1872. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 34. 1877.