Auguste Lesueur, a horticulturist at Orléans, France, obtained this late winter pear about 1882 as a cross between Bartlett and Fortunée. It was named after Le Lectier, the great pomologist of Orléans, who was growing in the year 1628 about 260 varieties of pears. The variety was introduced about 1889. In France, Le Lectier has been described as greatly superior in flavor, aroma, and sweetness to varieties of the same class having established reputations. In 1894, the Royal Horticultural Society of London recommended this variety for cultivation in England. Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright, dense-topped, very productive; trunk and branches medium in thickness and smoothness; branchlets thick, curved, light brownish-red, tinged with green and overspread with grayish scarf-skin, glabrous, sprinkled with numerous raised, conspicuous lenticels. Leaf-buds very small, short, pointed, plump, free. Leaves 2-7/8 in. long, 1-1/2 in. wide, thick; apex taper-pointed; margin glandular, finely serrate; petiole 2-1/4 in. long, slender. Flower-buds short, conical, plump, free, singly on very short spurs; flowers showy, 1-1/2 in. across, 8 or 10 buds in a cluster; pedicels 7/8 in. long. Fruit ripens December to January; large, elongated-obovate-pyriform, often with a narrow neck; stem slender, rather short, enlarged at both ends, inserted obliquely; cavity irregular, often lipped; calyx variable in size, partly open; basin variable in size, abrupt, irregular; skin glossy, thin, with uneven surface; color yellow, mottled and faintly blushed on the exposed cheek with yellowish-bronze; dots inconspicuous, small; flesh white, fine-grained, melting, juicy, sweet, pleasantly aromatic; quality very good. [Illustration: LÉON LECLERC (VAN MONS)] LÉON LECLERC (VAN MONS) =1.= _Mass. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 3. 1843. =2.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 419, fig. 192. 1845. =3.= Hovey _Fr. Am._ =1=:9, Pl. 1851. =4.= _Ann. Pom. Belge_ =5=:51, Pl. 1857. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 70. 1862. =6.= _Pom. France_ =1=: No. 29, Pl. 29. 1863. =7.= _Jour. Hort._ N. S. =10=:366. 1866. =8.= Mas _Le Verger_ =3=: Pt. 1, 127, fig. 62. 1866-73. =9.= Leroy _Dict. Pom._ =2=:722, fig. 1869. =10.= _Jour. Hort._ 3rd Ser. =1=:573, fig. 103. 1880. =11.= _Cat. Cong. Pom. France_ 361, fig. 1906. _Van Mons Butterbirne._ =12.= Lauche _Deut. Pom._ =II=: No. 65, Pl. 65. 1883. =13.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 292. 1889.