Bartlett is not without serious faults, however. The trees blight badly, and are not much above the average in resistance to blight, the black plague of the pear. Neither are they as hardy to cold or to heat as those of some other varieties. They are scarcely hardier to cold than those of the peach, and cannot withstand the summer heat of the southern, or of the Mississippi Valley states. Another serious defect of the trees is that, more than those of any other standard variety, their blossoms require cross-fertilization. The fruits are satisfactory in all characters excepting quality. There are many better-flavored pears. The fruits lack the rich, perfumed flavor of Seckel on one hand, and the piquant, vinous taste of Winter Nelis on the other. But the pears are much above the average in quality, and since no other variety is so easily grown, nor so reliable in the markets, Bartlett promises long to continue its supremacy for home and commercial plantations. After Kieffer, it is the most desired of all pears by the canning trade. Bartlett is the parent of several other well-known varieties, and of many sorts of small importance. This pear was found as a wilding by a Mr. Stair, a schoolmaster at Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. From him it was acquired by a Mr. Williams, a nurseryman at Turnham Green, Middlesex, and as it was propagated and distributed by him it became known by his name, although it is still known as Stair's pear at Aldermaston. It was brought to this country in 1797 or 1799 by James Carter of Boston for Thomas Brewer who planted the variety in his grounds at Roxbury, Massachusetts, under the name of Williams' Bon Chrétien, by which name it was then and still is known both in England and France. In 1817 Enoch Bartlett, Dorchester, Massachusetts, became possessed of the Brewer estate, and not knowing its true name allowed the pear to go out under his own. Henceforth it was known in America as Bartlett. The American Pomological Society added this variety to its catalog-list of fruits in 1848. Tree medium in size, tall, pyriform, upright, hardy, very productive; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown overlaid with ash-gray scarf-skin, with few lenticels; branchlets short, with short internodes, reddish-brown, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous lenticles. Leaf-buds short, obtuse, pointed, mostly free; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 2-3/4 in. long, 1-2/5 in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin tipped with small dark red glands, finely serrate; petiole 1-3/4 in. long. Flower-buds large, conical, pointed, free; flowers showy, 1-1/4 in. across, in dense clusters averaging 7 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1-1/8 in. long, slender, slightly pubescent.