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The Pears of New York (the Downing referred to in the Pears of Ontario) is available on line at the Cornell  Core Historical Library of Agriculture,  http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/browse/a.html     The complete description in it is as follows (pages 185 and 186):

"LAWRENCE

1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 169. 1841. 2. Mass. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 4. 1843. 3. Mag. Hort. 10:212. 1844. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 442. 1845. 5. Mag. Hort. 12:432, fig. 29. 1846. 6. Hovey Fr. Am. 2:13, PI. 1851. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 230. 1854. 8. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 440, fig. 1857. 9. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 480. 1897.

There is great diversity of opinion as to the value of Lawrence for a market pear, but no one denies it a place as one of the very best early winter pears for the home orchard. A generation ago it was held in high esteem as a market pear, but the more showy Kieffer, kept in cold storage, has elbowed the less conspicuous Lawrence off the fruit-stands and almost out of the markets. The tree is hardy, moderately vigorous and fruitful, an early, annual, and uniform bearer, and has the reputation of being one of the longest lived of all pear trees. The fruits are of but medium size, but are shapely in form, trim in contour, and are distinctive in shape because of the rounded, truncate stem end. In color, the pear is a bright, clean lemon-yellow marked with patches of russet and faintly blushed on the side to the sun. No yellow pear is more attractive. The fruits come in season in early winter and have the excellent character of keeping well under ordinary care for a full month or longer. The melting flesh abounds with a rich, sugary, perfumed juice, by virtue of which it is justly esteemed as the best-flavored pear of its season, Lawrence finds congenial soils and climates in nearly every part of New York, and should have a place in every home orchard in the State.

Lawrence is a native of Flushing, Long Island, and was first introduced to growers by Wilcomb and King of Flushing, who sent specimens of it in 1843 to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, saying that it appeared to be a cross between the old Saint Germain and White Doyenne, "as it resembles both of them in wood, foliage, and fruit, and there is no other variety in the neighborhood." The variety rapidly found favor among pear growers and was soon widely disseminated. The American Pomological Society added Lawrence to its fruit-catalog in 1854.
186 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK

Tree of medium size, vigorous, spreading, with drooping branches, very hardy, productive; trunk shaggy; branches smooth, zigzag, reddish-brown mingled with ash-gray scarf-skin, with numerous large lenticels; branchlets reddish-brown, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with slightly raised, conspicuous lenticels.

Leaf-buds short, obtuse, plump, nearly free. Leaves 2-1/2 in. long, 1-1/2 in. wide, oval, leathery; margin finely serrate; petiole 1-3/4 in. long, slender; stipules rudimentary. Flower-buds hardy, conical or pointed, free; flowers open early, 1-3/8 in. across, in rather dense clusters, from 8 to 12 buds in a cluster; pedicels 7/8 in. long, lightly pubescent, greenish.

Fruit ripe November to December; medium in size, 2-5/8 in. long, 2-1/8 in. wide, uniform in size and shape, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, generally symmetrical; stem 1 in. long, thick, slightly curved; cavity small, obtuse, shallow, narrow, russeted, furrowed and irregular, often lipped; calyx large, partly open; lobes separated at the base, long, broad, acute; basin wide, obtuse, furrowed and sometimes corrugated; skin thick and granular, tough, roughish; color lemon-yellow, marked with occasional patches of russet and with a faint russet-red blush on the exposed cheek; dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; flesh yellowish-white, firm, granular, tender and melting when fully mature, juicy, rich, sweet; quality very good. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds large, long, plump, acute."

 

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