Fruit ripens in August and September; medium to sometimes large, 3-1/2 in. long, 2-1/2 in. wide, obtuse-pyriform to oblong-pyriform; stem 1 in. long, slender, obliquely inserted; cavity obtuse, very shallow; calyx small, open; lobes long, projecting; basin variable in depth, small, irregular, furrowed; skin smooth, glossy; color lemon-yellow, blushed with red on the sunny side, occasionally marbled with thin orange-russet about the neck; dots light greenish or russet; flesh white, coarse, juicy, sweet, aromatic; quality good. Core large; seeds dark brown, small, narrow, long, often abortive. [Illustration: JOSÉPHINE DE MALINES] JOSÉPHINE DE MALINES =1.= McIntosh _Bk. Gard._ =2=:461. 1855. =2.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 68. 1862. =3.= _Pom. France_ =2=: No. 50, Pl. 50. 1864. =4.= _Jour. Hort._ N. S. =14=:67. 1868. =5.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 793, fig. 1869. =6.= Leroy _Dict. Pom._ =2=:310, fig. 1869. =7.= _Guide Prat._ 61, 282. 1876. =8.= _Jour. Hort._ 3rd Ser. =5=:565, fig. 96. 1882. =9.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 599. 1884. =10.= Bunyard _Handb. Hardy Fr._ 182. 1920. _Joséphine von Mecheln._ =11.= Dochnahl _Führ. Obstkunde_ =2=:93. 1856. =12.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 239. 1889. =13.= Gaucher _Pom. Prak. Obst._ No. 50, Pl. 31. 1894. _Malines._ =14.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 24. 1897. This is another of the few good winter pears. The fruit-characters are so distinctive and meritorious that the variety should be grown in every home orchard, and it possesses much merit for commercial plantations. The fruits have a marked peculiarity. Cut through the shaded yellow-russet skin, flesh with a faint, rosy tint is displayed. Several red or rosy-fleshed pears are grown in Europe, but this is the only one described by American pomologists. The tree also, has a marked peculiarity; it thrives amazingly well on the white-thorn as well as on pear and quince stocks. But it is the quality of the fruits that commends the variety most highly. The flesh is buttery, juicy, sweet, and perfumed--pleasing in every character that gratifies the palate. The season is exceedingly variable, and is given by different pomologists from December to March and January to May. The fruits are not very pleasing in appearance, but the accompanying illustration scarcely does them justice in either size or color. In the orchard, the trees are satisfactory, but the nurserymen find them rather difficult to grow, this, no doubt, being the chief reason for the apparent neglect of this splendid pear. The trees thrive in almost any soil or situation suitable to pears, and are everywhere prodigiously fruitful, hardy, and resistant to blight. The variety deserves wider recognition than it now receives.