Medieval Fruit Varieties
Variety: Petit Muscat (1530)
Photo - USDA National Germplasm Repository
Synonyms: Chiot, Little Musk Little Bastard Musk, Muscat Petit, Muscat Robert, Petit Muscat, Petit Musk, Primitive, Sept-en-gueule, Supreme
Notes:
Jean Mayer, director of the gardens of the Grand Duke of Wurtzburg, Bavaria, in his 'Pomona franconica' published in 1801 showed that the petit-Muscat was the antique pear Superba described by Pliny. Various other pomologists wrote of it prior to Mayer as for instance Jacq. Dalechmp, 1615; Jean Jonston, 1662; and Henri Manger, 1783. Charles Estienne was the first to write of it in France, 1530, and he named it Musquette. Fruit very small, turbinate, more or less obtuse and sometimes globular-turbinate; the eye is placed in a regular-formed cavity and is always naked in consequence of the segments of the calyx falling off, pale greenish-yellow, finely dotted and slightly clouded with rose on the side of the sun (in France); fles yellowish, semi-fine, breaking, not very juicy, sugary, acidulous and with a pleasant musk flavor; second; June. -- U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York, 1921.