"This variety was, until the introduction of the modern kinds, highly esteemed. It is above medium size, averaging fifty-six pears to the peck, globular obtuse pyriform, covered with thin russet, juicy when gathered early and ripened in the house; of pleasant flavor but rather deficient in this respect. It is ripe about the middle of September. It was considered by my father a native, and was called by him the _American Orange_, and after examination of the descriptions and plates, I cannot think it the same as the _Orange Rouge_ or _Orange d'Automne_ of Duhamel, Decaisne, and Leroy. The Hon. Paul Dudley, Esq., of Roxbury, in some 'Observations on some of the Plants in New England with remarkable Instances of the Power of Vegetation,' communicated to the Royal Society of London (I quote from the 'Philosophical Transactions,' abridged, London, 1734, Vol. VI, Part II, p. 341), says: 'An _Orange_ Pear Tree grows the largest, and yields the fairest fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high, that measures six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground, and has borne thirty Bushels at a Time, and this Year I measured an _Orange_ pear, that grew in my own Orchard, of eleven Inches round the Bulge.' "If this is, as believed, of native origin, it is the oldest American fruit in cultivation, unless we except the _Apple_ pear, which is probably of about the same date. This is small, oblate, of pale yellow color, ripening in August. It is quite distinct from the _Poire Pomme d'Hiver_, of Leroy, and I think also from the _Poire Pomme d'Été_, of the same author. I had supposed the variety to be extinct, but last year discovered in a garden in Salem the remnant of an old tree with a trunk four feet in diameter, and still producing fruit. "The _Orange_ pear tree which produced the specimens exhibited, was inherited by the present owner from his father, to whom it came from his wife. It had descended to her almost from the first settlement of Salem, but partly in the female line, so that the name of the owner sometimes changed. The house on the estate was built in 1812, having replaced one which was pulled down after standing 150 years. Within the period of a generation there were standing in Salem several trees of the _Orange_ pear, some of which were reputed to be more than two centuries old, and all of which were undoubtedly very ancient, but they are all now gone except Capt. Allen's, the last one having been blown down in the winter of 1874-75. I have heard a tradition that this last mentioned tree was one of several imported from England and planted in gardens at intervals on the northerly side of the principal street in Salem. This tradition may or may not be true with regard to these trees, but it would not apply to the Allen tree, for the height at which it was grafted forbids the idea that it was imported from England in a grafted state.