For the home orchard, Seckel has no rival in any part of North America where European varieties are grown. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, there lived in Philadelphia a well-known sportsman and cattle dealer known as "Dutch Jacob." Every autumn, upon returning from shooting excursions, Dutch Jacob distributed among his neighbors pears of exceedingly delicious flavor. The place of their growth he kept secret. In time, a tract of land south of Philadelphia was disposed of in parcels, and Dutch Jacob secured the ground on which his favorite pear tree stood, a neck of land near the Delaware river. Shortly afterwards this land became the property of a Mr. Seckel, who gave the pear his name and introduced it. Later, the property was added to the estate of Stephen Girard, and the original tree long remained vigorous and fruitful. The new variety was soon widely disseminated and everywhere became popular. As early as 1819, Dr. Hossack of New York sent trees of the variety to the London Horticultural Society, whence it was later distributed in England. There is much difference of opinion as to the spelling of the name of this pear. Coxe, who lived in Philadelphia and probably knew the introducer of the pear, writing in 1817, spelled the name _Seckle_. English pomologists have followed Coxe. Nearly all of Coxe's contemporaries, however, spelled it _Seckel_, the spelling now in common use. At the first meeting of the American Pomological Society, held in 1848, Seckel was recommended for general cultivation and the variety has ever held its place among the pears recommended by the Society. Tree large and very vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive, long-lived; trunk very stocky; branches thick, reddish-brown mingled with dull gray scarf-skin, covered with small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, dark reddish-brown, dull, smooth, glabrous, with small, slightly raised lenticels. Leaf-buds small, short, obtuse or pointed, appressed; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 2-1/2 in. long, 1-1/2 in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole 1-1/2 in. long; stipules very long when present. Flower-buds small, short, conical, free; flowers 1-1/4 in. across, in dense clusters, 7 or 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels 5/8 in. long, slender, lightly pubescent, light green, slightly streaked with red.