=1.= _Pom. Mag._ =3=:122, Pl. 1830. =2.= Prince _Pom. Mag._ =1=:131. 1831. =3.= Kenrick _Am. Orch._ 179. 1832. =4.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 399. 1845. =5.= Hovey _Fr. Am._ =2=:37, Pl. 1851. =6.= Dochnahl _Führ. Obstkunde_ =2=:59. 1856. =7.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 70. 1862. =8.= Leroy _Dict. Pom._ =2=:399, fig. 1869. =9.= _Guide Prat._ 59, 287. 1876. =10.= Lauche _Deut. Pom._ =II=: No. 38, Pl. 38. 1882. =11.= Hogg. _Fruit Man._ 613. 1884. =12.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 251. 1889. _Marie-Louise Delcourt._ =13.= _Pom. France_ =1=: No. 19, Pl. 19. 1863. =14.= Mas _Le Verger_ =3=: Pt. 1, 163, fig. 80. 1866-73. The fruits of Marie Louise are among the perfections of Nature, and were the tree more certain in bearing and less fastidious as to environment and care, the variety would rank as one of the best of all pears. Pomologists generally agree that its fruits are the finest flavored of their season. The flesh is tender and melting, very juicy, and the flavor is a most delectable commingling of refreshing piquancy and scented sweetness. In shape, the pears resemble those of Beurré Bosc, having the same trim contour, but the color is very different--rich yellow, netted and sprinkled with russet, and sun-flecked with red on the sunny side. The fruit is somewhat susceptible to the scab fungus, and even the most careful spraying fails to give it a fair cheek in some seasons. The trees are hardy but only moderately vigorous, somewhat susceptible to blight, rather uncertain in bearing, and vary much from season to season in abundance and quality of product. Not at all suited for a commercial plantation, Marie Louise is one of the choicest sorts for a home collection or in the hands of a pear fancier. The Abbé Duquesne, Mons, Belgium, raised this pear from seed in 1809 and dedicated it to Marie Louise, the second consort of Napoleon the First. The Abbé passed the pear on to Van Mons, who in 1816 sent it without a name to a Mr. Braddick of Thames Ditton, England, where in time it became one of the best-known pears. Thomas Andrew Knight sent cions of the variety from England to John Lowell, Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1823, whence it became widely disseminated in America. The American Pomological Society placed Marie Louise in its list of fruits in 1862. Tree medium in size, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy, productive; trunk slender; branches dark reddish-brown mingled with thin gray scarf-skin, marked with many large lenticels; branchlets very slender and very short, with short internodes, light brown, tinged with brownish-red, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with very small, slightly raised lenticels.