LEADING VARIETIES OF PLUMS.
ABUNDANCE
[Illustration: ABUNDANCE]
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 96. 1887. =2.= _Am. Gard._ =9=:360.
1888. =3.= _Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 51, 52, 53, 99. 1889. =4.=
Bailey _Ann. Hort._ 103. 1889. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 106,
125. 1891. =6.= _Am. Gard._ =13=:700. 1892. =7.= _Rural N. Y._
=52=:666. 1893. =8.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =62=:19, 27, 32. 1894.
=9.= _Tex. Sta. Bul._ =32=:488. 1894. =10.= _Rev. Hort._ 160.
1895. =11.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =118=:52. 1895. =12.= _Cornell
Sta. Bul._ =106=:41, 43, 44, 47, 48, 49. 1896. =13.= _Va. Sta.
Bul._ =67=:96. 1896. =14.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =131=:195. 1897.
=15.= _Ibid._ =139=:37, 38, 39, 40. 1897. =16.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 26. 1897. =17.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =175=:141, 142, 143.
1899. =18.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 132, 135. 1901. =19.= _Mich.
Sta. Bul._ =169=:242, 248. 1899. =20.= _Ont. Fruit Exp. Sta.
Rpt._ 15. 1902. =21.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:254, 255. 1905.
=22.= _Texas Nur. Co. Cat._ 9. 1907. =23.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._
=68=:7, 28. 1905.
_Abundance_ 7. _Babcock_ (?) 15, 17. Babcock 12, 16, 18. Botan
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10. _Botan_ 12, 16, 18. _Botankio_ 12. Botankio
3. Burbank No. 2, 11, 12. Chase 12. _Chase_ 14, 15, 17. Douglas
9, 15, 18. _Douglas_ 17. _Hattankio_ 8, 15. _Hattonkin_ 12.
_Hytankayo_ 8, 9. Munson 8. _Munson_ 9, 18. Oriole 22. Sweet
Botan 7. _Sweet Botan_ 15. _Yellow Fleshed Botan_ 3, 6, 8, 17,
23. Yellow Fleshed Botan 5. _Yellow Japan_ 12. Yellow Japan 8,
14.
Though Abundance has been in America only a quarter of a century, it
is now about as well known as any other plum, being probably the best
known of the Triflora plums. The two chief assets which have given the
variety its great popularity so quickly are adaptability to a wide
diversity of soils and climates and, as its name implies, abundance
of fruit, for it bears not only heavily but yearly. As a market plum
Abundance has been overplanted since it ships and keeps poorly, is much
subject to brown-rot, matures unevenly and drops rather too readily as
it ripens. Whether for market or home use, the fruit of this variety
should be picked before it is quite ripe as it develops in flavor best
when so picked and the dropping and rot are thus avoided to some extent.
It is an exceedingly variable plum and undoubtedly several well marked
strains could be selected, some of which are not as hardy or otherwise
as valuable as others. While Abundance has passed the heyday of its
popularity it is still one of the most desirable of the Triflora plums.
This variety was imported from Japan by Luther Burbank in 1884, and
was introduced by John T. Lovett, Little Silver, New Jersey, under the
name Abundance, in 1888. A large number of Japanese plums that have
since been introduced have proved to be either identical or so nearly
like the Abundance that much confusion has arisen. Abundance was first
known as Botan, but that name was dropped as it refers to a group of
plums in Japan rather than to a variety. Babcock, which is said to have
been imported by Burbank in 1885 and named for Colonel E. F. Babcock,
a nurseryman of Little Rock, Arkansas, has been described by Bailey as
indistinguishable from Abundance. Botankio, described in the Georgia
Horticultural Society Report for 1889, proved to be the Abundance
as tested at the Cornell Experiment Station. The Chase plum, also
disseminated in New York under the name Yellow Japan, was bought by the
R. G. Chase Company, Geneva, New York, for the Abundance, but as it was
thought to blossom and fruit later than that variety, it was distributed
as a new plum; in 1897 Bailey considered it the same as Chabot, but in
1899 he stated that it and Abundance were identical. The Douglas plum is
also identical. Dr. J. T. Whitaker of Tyler, Texas, imported this variety
and introduced it in 1886 under the name of Hytankayo. Bailey, who tested
Whitaker’s variety from trees obtained from T. V. Munson, Denison,
Texas, found a yellow-fruited strain and to distinguish the purple form
named the latter Munson.[202] As this name had been applied to a native
plum, R. H. Price, of the Texas Experiment Station, in 1894 renamed
the variety calling it Douglas.[203] There have been two types of this
Douglas plum disseminated; Bailey, in 1899, found no difference between
it and Abundance except that the Douglas seemed to have a little drier
flesh; others testing Douglas found it to be identical with the Chabot.
Burbank No. 2, imported by Luther Burbank in 1885 and introduced by him
in 1889, is very similar if not identical with the Abundance. Oriole,
recently introduced by the Texas Nursery Company, Sherman, Texas, is so
nearly like Abundance as to be unworthy of a separate name. The American
Pomological Society added Abundance to its fruit catalog list in 1897.
Tree large, vigorous, vasiform, open-topped, hardy in New
York, very productive, susceptible to attacks of shot-hole
fungus; branches rough, dark ash-gray, inclined to split when
overloaded, with few, slightly raised lenticels; branchlets
slender, short, with short internodes, red early in the season
changing to dark brown, glossy, glabrous, with numerous,
inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds small, short,
conical, plump, free.
Leaves folded upward, narrow-obovate or oblanceolate,
peach-like, one and three-eighths inches wide, three and
one-quarter inches long, thin; upper surface light green,
smooth, glabrous, with grooved midrib; lower surface pale
green, pubescent on the midrib and larger veins; apex
taper-pointed, base cuneate, margin very finely serrate,
with small, brownish glands; petiole three-eighths inch long,
slightly pubescent along one side, reddish, glandless or with
from one to five small, globose, green or reddish glands
usually on the stalk.
Blooming season early; flowers appearing with the leaves,
medium in size; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in
pairs or in threes; pedicels of medium length and thickness,
slightly pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic,
glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, with ciliate margins, glabrous,
erect; petals broadly oval, entire, abruptly clawed; anthers
yellowish; filaments of average length; pistil glabrous, equal
to the stamens in length.
Fruit early, season short; one and three-eighths inches in
diameter, roundish-ovate, halves nearly equal, slightly
compressed; cavity medium in depth and width, abrupt, regular;
suture shallow, distinct; apex pointed; color pinkish-red
changing to darker red, mottled, with thin bloom; dots
numerous, of medium size, russet, conspicuous; stem one-half
inch long, glabrous, parting easily from the fruit; skin thin,
tough, bitterish, separating readily; flesh yellow, very juicy,
tender and melting, sweet except next to the pit, pleasantly
aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half
inch in size, oval, somewhat compressed, pointed, rough, ridged
along the ventral suture; dorsal suture grooved.
AGEN
[Illustration: AGEN]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Kraft _Pom. Aust._ =2=:38, Tab. 189 fig. 1. 1796. =2.=
_Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 143, 147, 152, 153. 1831. =3.= Prince
_Pom. Man._ =2=:75, 100. 1832. =4.= Poiteau _Pom. Franc._ 1.
1846. =5.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 309. 1845. =6.= _U. S. Pat.
Off. Rpt._ 30. 1854. =7.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 519. 1859.
=8.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 86. 1862. =9.= Oberdieck _Deut. Obst.
Sort._ 427. 1881. =10.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 683. 1884. =11.= Mas
_Le Verger_ =6=:81, fig. 1866-73. =12.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._
291. 1885-86. =13.= _Cat. Cong. Pom. France_ 343. 1887. =14.=
_Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 49, 50. 1887-88. =15.= _Ibid._ 233, 235,
340. 1890. =16.= _Ibid._ 96, 105, Pl. 1. 1891. =17.= _Guide
Prat._ 160, 353. 1895. =18.= _Oregon Sta. Bul._ =45=:24. 1897.
=19.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =131=:191. 1897. =20.= U. S. D. A.
_Div. Pom. Bul._ =7=:315, 316. Pl. IV, fig. 4. 1898. =21.=
_Mich. Sta. Bul._ =169=:241, 242. 1899. =22.= _Cal. Fr. Gr.
Con._ 29. 1901. =23.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 94, 95 fig. 1901.
=24.= Baltet _Cult. Fr._ 495, fig. 331, 506, 507, fig. 336.
1908. =25.= Wickson _Cal. Fruits_ 225. 1908. =26.= _Cal. Fr.
Grower_ =40=:18, 19, fig. 1909.
_Agen_ 22. _Agener Kaiserzwetsche_ 17. Agen Date 3. _Agen
Datte_ 5, 10. _Agener Pflaume_ 17. Agener Pflaume 9. Agen Prune
21. _California_ 20. California 16. D’Agen 2, 10, 11, 17, 24.
_D’Agen_ 3, 5, 8, 13, 20. _D’Ast_ 13, 17. _Date_ 21. _Datte_
17. _De Brignole_ 17. _D’Ente_ 13, 17, 24. D’Ente d’Agen 13.
_Datte Violette_ 1, 13, 17. _Die Blaue Dattelpflaume_ 17.
Die Blaue Dattelpflaume 1. _Du Roi_ 17. _French_ 20. _French
Prune_ 15, 18, 23, 25. French Prune (?) 2, 12, 14, 15, 26. _Lot
d’Ente_ 18. _Petite_ 20. _Petite d’Agen_ 14, 20, 26. Petite
Prune 18. _Petite Prune_ 23. _Petite Prune d’Agen_ 25. Prune
d’Agen 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 19, 25. _Prune d’Agen_ 14, 16, 18,
23. _Prune de Brignole_ (of some) 5, 7, 17. _Prune d’Ante_ 3.
_Prune d’Ast_ 5, 7, 10, 11. _Prune d’Ente_ 7, 12, 18. _Prunier
d’Agen_ 3. Prunier d’Agen 6. Prune d’Ente 22. _Prune du Roi_
10. _Robe de Sergent_ 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 17, 18. _Robe de
Sargent_ 10, 12. Roi d’Agen 2. Saint Maurin 2, 4. _St. Maurin_
5, 7, 10, 17. _Saint Mauriniana_ 4. _Violette Dattelzwetsche_
17.
Agen is the plum par excellence for prune-making in France and America.
Several qualities make it admirably fit for curing into prunes. To begin
with, it has a high percentage of sugars and solids so that the plum
cures readily into a firm, sweet, long-keeping prune which in cooking
needs comparatively little sugar; again, the trees bear regularly,
abundantly and the plums are uniform in size,—productiveness, regular
bearing and uniformity of size of fruit being necessary attributes of a
good prune-making plum; lastly, it hangs well on the tree as it ripens
and afterwards so that the curing really begins on the tree. Besides
making most excellent prunes, the Agen is a very good dessert plum—one
of the best—and ought to be in every home orchard and, where it attains
sufficient size, in every commercial plantation. Lack of size is the
defect in this variety which has kept it from being more largely grown
outside of prune-making regions. If by pruning, thinning and other
cultural treatment the size of the plums could be increased, the Agen
should prove a valuable commercial fruit in New York.
The name of this variety is derived from Agen, a region in France where
it is extensively grown. Tradition says that on their return from the
Crusades, the Benedictine monks brought with them from Turkey or Persia
what was then known as the Date plum and planted it in the garden of
their abbey on the River Lot, in the vicinity of Bordeaux, France, and
that afterwards this became the Agen. Its first recorded importation into
the United States was made in 1854 by the United States Patent Office,
though it was described by Prince as early as 1832. The most important
introduction was made, however, in 1856, when Louis Pellier of San Jose,
California, introduced Agen on the Pacific Coast, where it soon became
and still is the leading plum, though with curious persistency the
fruit-growers there call it the “French Prune” and the “Petite Prune.”
In 1862 this variety was added to the fruit catalog list of the American
Pomological Society. There are many strains of Agen in America, due to
the numerous importations of grafts from various parts of France, where
the plum orchards are frequently grown from seedlings or from sprouts;
some of these strains are worthy of varietal recognition.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy,
very productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with numerous,
large, raised lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with short
internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-drab, dull,
pubescent, with small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and
length, conical, free.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, one and three-quarters
inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, velvety; upper
surface with few fine hairs and a narrow, grooved midrib;
lower surface pale green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly
pointed, base acute, margin doubly serrate; petiole one inch
long, slender, pubescent, tinged red, with two or three small,
globose, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across,
white; borne on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels
five-eighths inch long, thick, glabrous except for a few short
hairs, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent;
calyx-lobes obtuse, somewhat pubescent within, with glandular
margin, reflexed; petals broadly oval or obovate, entire,
tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments
five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the
stamens in length.
Fruit late, season short; one and one-half inches by one
and one-eighth inches in size, obovate, the base necked,
halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture very
shallow, indistinct; apex roundish or flattened; color
reddish or violet-purple, overspread with thin bloom; dots
numerous, small, brown, obscure, clustered about the apex and
interspersed between russet flecks; stem thick, seven-eighths
inch long, glabrous, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin,
tough; flesh greenish-yellow, tender, sweet, aromatic; very
good to best; stone semi-free or free, seven-eighths inch by
one-half inch in size, oval, flattened, with pitted surfaces,
rather abrupt at the base and apex; ventral suture somewhat
narrow, furrowed, with distinct wing; dorsal suture widely
grooved.
AITKIN
_Prunus nigra_
=1.= _Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 426. 1896. =2.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._
=63=:24, 27, 28 fig. 11, 43. 1897. =3.= _Jewell Nur. Cat._
1899-1906. =4.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 169. 1901. =5.= _Can. Exp.
Farm Bul._ =43=:29. 1903. =6.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 227. 1904.
Aitken 4. _Beatty_ 6 incor. Itasca 1 incor.
Aitkin is very favorably mentioned in the references given above and
undoubtedly has value for the Northwest. It was listed in the catalog of
the American Pomological Society in 1899. The variety was found growing
wild in Aitkin County, Minnesota, by D. C. Hazelton on land adjoining
his farm. It seemed to possess merit and was introduced in 1896 by
the Jewell Nursery Company of Lake City, Minnesota. Because of having
originated near Itasca Lake, it has been confused with the Itasca plum,
which preceded it by nearly ten years. The following description is a
compilation:
Tree vigorous, productive, ripening its wood very early;
fruit earliest in season of its group; large for its class,
oval, deep red, with no bloom; skin thin, not astringent;
flesh yellow, juicy, sweet and rich; good; stone large, oval,
flattened, clinging.
ALHAMBRA
[_Prunus triflora_ × _Prunus cerasifera_ × _Prunus domestica_] ×
[(_Prunus simonii_ × _Prunus triflora_) × (_Prunus americana_ × _Prunus
nigra_)]
=1.= _Vt. Sta. Bul._ =67=:5. 1898. =2.= De Vries _Plant
Breeding_ 213. 1907.
Although it is over a decade since Alhambra was offered to fruit-growers,
it has made little headway in popularity and is chiefly of interest
because of its breeding. It is not often that we can trace the pedigree
of a plant for more than one or at the most two generations, but in
Alhambra we are particularly fortunate. Luther Burbank, the originator,
began by crossing Kelsey and Pissardi, and the offspring from this cross
was fertilized with Agen pollen. This tri-hybrid was in turn fertilized
with pollen from a complex hybrid of a cross of _Prunus simonii_ and
_Prunus triflora_ pollinated by a cross of _Prunus americana_ and _Prunus
nigra_. As might be expected, the offspring of this final cross was
extremely variable and from it was selected the Alhambra. The variety was
named by the originator in 1898.
The fruit as described by Waugh is “egg-shaped, large or
very large; cavity medium shallow, abruptly rounded; suture
shallow; apex pointed; color dark, dull red; dots many, small,
yellowish; bloom thin, purplish; skin firm; flesh yellow
inside, reddish outside; stone medium to large, flat, pointed,
nearly smooth, clinging; flavor brisk subacid; quality first
rate.”
ALTHAM
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Jour. Hort._ N. S. =17=:228. 1869. =2.= Lange _Allgem.
Garten._ =2=:419. 1879. =3.= Oberdieck _Deut. Obst. Sort._ 432.
1881. =4.= Lauche _Deut. Pom._ 19, Pl. IV. 1882. =5.= Hogg
_Fruit Man._ 692. 1884. =6.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 420. 1889.
=7.= Gaucher _Pom. Prak. Obst._ 94, _Pl._ 1894. =8.= _Soc. Nat.
Hort. France Pom._ 550 fig. 1904. =9.= _Cat. Cong. Pom. France_
468, fig. 1906. =10.= Baltet _Cult. Fr._ 490, fig. 328. 1908.
_Althan’s Reine Claude_ 6, 7. Althann’s Reine Claude 2, 3,
4, 6. _Althahn’s Rote Reine-Claude_ 6, 7. _Althann’s Reine
Claude_ 7. Count Althann’s Gage 5. _Count Althann’s Gage_ 6, 7.
_Graf Althan’s Reine-Claude_ 6. _Graf Althann’s Reine-Claude_
7. Hathen’s Red Gage 1. _Reine-Claude Rouge de Hathen_ 1.
_Reine-Claude d’Althann_ 5, 6, 7. _Reine-Claude Comte Althan_
5, 6. _Reine-Claude de Comte Hathem_ 5, 6. _Reine-Claude
du Comte Hathem_ 6, 7. _Reine-Claude du Comte d’Althan_ 8.
_Reine-Claude Althan’s_ 5, 6, 7. _Reine-Claude Comte d’Althan_
6. Reine-Claude d’Althan 8. _Reine-Claude d’Althan_ 6, 7, 10.
_Reine-Claude Rouge Comte Althan_ 6, 7. _Reine-Claude Rouge
du Comte Hethau_ 6. _Reine-Claude rouge du comte Hethan_ 7.
_Reinette Claude Comte d’Althan_ 9. _Reinette Claude d’Althan_
9.
Altham is an excellent plum for dessert or home use. The color is a
trifle too dull for market purposes and yet it is better colored than
McLaughlin, which sells fairly well. The fruit is the type of the last
named plum but is later. In Europe this variety is well known and
highly esteemed for its quality, but unfortunately it is almost unknown
in America. The variety is well worth trial in this country as a fine
plum of the Reine Claude group. Altham is a seedling of Reine Claude,
raised by Herr Prochaska, gardener to Count Michael Joseph Althann,
of Swoyschitz, in Bohemia. It was noted in the _English Journal of
Horticulture_ for 1869 as a new plum sent out by Thomas Rivers.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, dense-topped,
productive; leaf-scars prominent; leaves folded upward,
obovate, two and one-quarter inches wide, nearly four inches
long, very thick, leathery; margin doubly crenate, with few,
small, dark glands; petiole thick, with from one to four
globose, yellowish-green glands on the stalk; season of bloom
intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one
inch across, yellowish at the apex of the petals; borne on
lateral buds and spurs, singly or in twos.
Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches by one and
five-eighths inches in size, oblate, strongly truncate at
the base, compressed; color dark purplish-red over a yellow
ground, covered with thick bloom; dots russet surrounded with
a dark red ring; stem adhering strongly to the pulp; flesh
light golden-yellow, firm but tender, sweet, mild, pleasant;
very good to best; stone semi-clinging, seven-eighths inch by
five-eighths inch in size, flattened, irregular-oval, with
pitted surfaces, contracted at the base into a short oblique
neck; ventral suture prominent, heavily furrowed, often with
distinct wing; dorsal suture wide, deep.
AMERICA
[Illustration: AMERICA]
_Prunus munsoniana_ × _Prunus triflora_
=1.= Burbank _Cat._ 3. 1898 =2.= _Vt. Sta. Bul._ =67=:5. 1898,
=3.= _Rural N. Y._ =59=:706. 1900. =4.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._
=14=:273. 1900. =5.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =205=:37 1903. =6.=
_Del. Penin. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 36. 1905. =7.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._
=162=:254, 255. 1905. =8.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =68=:8, 35. 1905.
America is illustrated and described in full chiefly because it is the
most promising cross between _Prunus munsoniana_ and _Prunus triflora_.
The fruit of the variety is unusually attractive in appearance,
golden-yellow with a red cheek and waxy lustre turning currant-red
when ripe, ships exceptionally well and is of very good quality for
cooking, but is without merit as a dessert plum. The trees are large,
very vigorous, as hardy as either of its parents or possibly more so,
and enormously productive. The qualities of fruit and tree are such that
the variety ought to succeed in commercial plantations where any but the
hardiest native plums are cultivated. America is almost phenomenally free
from rot, considering its parentage.
This variety is one of Luther Burbank’s productions, grown from a seed of
Robinson fertilized by pollen from Abundance. It was introduced by the
originator in 1898 and has been since that time well tested at several
places in the eastern states and is very generally well spoken of for a
plum of its kind for the East.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, somewhat open-topped, hardy,
very productive; branches roughish and with cracked bark,
slightly zigzag, dark ash-gray, with numerous, conspicuously
raised lenticels; branchlets willowy, long, with short
internodes, green with a reddish tinge changing to dark
chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, small, raised
lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, conical, free.
Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one and
one-half inches wide, three and one-fourth inches long, thin;
upper surface reddish late in season, smooth and glossy, with
deeply grooved midrib; lower surface light green, sparingly
pubescent along the midrib and larger veins which are more or
less red; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin finely and
doubly crenate and with numerous, small, dark glands; petiole
one-half inch long, tinged red, pubescent along one side,
glandless or with one or two small globose, reddish glands on
the upper part of the stalk.
Blooming season intermediate and long; flowers appearing after
the leaves, one-half inch across, white; borne in clusters
on short lateral spurs and buds, in pairs or in threes;
pedicels five-sixteenths inch long, slender, pubescent, green;
calyx-tube greenish, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse,
with a trace of red along the margin, glandular-serrate,
glabrous, with marginal hairs, erect; petals small, roundish,
entire, tapering abruptly to narrow claws; anthers yellowish;
filaments three-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer
than the stamens.
Fruit early, season of medium length; one and three-eighths
inches in diameter, roundish-oval, halves equal; cavity
shallow, flaring; suture shallow, a distinct line; apex
roundish; color clear, dark, currant-red over golden-yellow,
mottled, with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, whitish,
inconspicuous; stem slender, one-half inch long, glabrous,
adhering to the fruit; skin thin, bitterish, separating readily
from the pulp; flesh yellow, juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender,
sweet, not high in flavor; fair in quality; stone clinging,
seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, pointed,
with pitted surfaces, broadly ridged along the ventral suture;
dorsal suture grooved.
AMERICAN
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Oregon Sta. Bul._ =61=:17, 18. 1900.
American Seedling 1.
American originated with a Mr. Peterson of Elkton, Douglas County,
Oregon, as a sprout from an old tree. It has never been extensively
disseminated, but seems to be a variety of considerable promise. The
fruit as grown on the Station grounds resembles Hand rather closely; is
large for a plum of its type, is a handsome golden color, is high in
quality and will probably keep and ship well. Too little is known of its
tree-characters to recommend it unqualifiedly.
Tree above medium in size, vigorous, round-topped, dense,
productive; branches numerous; branchlets thick, marked
by grayish scarf-skin; leaves flattened, oval or obovate,
two and one-quarter inches wide, four and one-half inches
long, dark green; margin serrate or crenate; blooming season
intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one
and three-eighths inches across, singly or in twos, fragrant.
Fruit mid-season; very large, roundish-oblate, truncate,
golden-yellow, indistinctly streaked with green, mottled,
covered with thin bloom; flesh light golden-yellow, tender,
sweet, pleasant flavor; good to very good; stone clinging, one
inch by three-quarters inch in size, broadly oval, flattened,
surfaces pitted; dorsal suture wide, deep.
AMERICAN EAGLE
_Prunus americana_
=1.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:36. 1892. =2.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 37. 1899. =3.= _Can. Exp. Farms Rpt._ 105. 1900. =4.=
Waugh _Plum Cult._ 142. 1901. =5.= _Can. Exp. Farm Bul._
=43=:28. 1903. =6.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:254, 255. 1905.
Of the origin of this very good Americana variety little is known except
that it probably came from Missouri, as it was introduced, in the fall of
1859, by the Osceola Nursery Company, Osceola, Missouri. Although an old
variety it was not listed by the American Pomological Society until 1899.
In regions where Americana plums are grown, American Eagle ought to be
better known, its chief defect being the dull color of the fruit.
Tree vigorous, spreading; leaves large; petiole glandular.
Fruit mid-season; large, varies from roundish-oval to nearly
oblate, dark red, covered with thick bloom; stem short,
pubescent; flesh yellow, juicy, fibrous, sweet, aromatic,
with characteristic Americana flavor; of good quality; stone
clinging, three-eighths inch by one-half inch in size,
roundish, turgid, conspicuously winged; surface smooth.
AMES
[Illustration: AMES]
_Prunus americana_ × _Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =12=:220. 1899. =2.= _Ia. Hort. Soc.
Rpt._ 112. 1899. =3.= _Ia. Sta. Bul._ =46=:261. 1900. =4.=
Waugh _Plum Cult._ 203. 1901. =5.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._
293. 1903. =6.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._ =93=:9. 1905. =7.= _Ill.
Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 422. 1905. =8.= _Rural N. Y._ =65=:730. 1906.
_De Soto_ × _Oregon No. 3_ 6. _Japan Hybrid No. 3_ 2.
Though Ames has been known to the public scarcely ten years, its good
qualities have given it relatively high rank among Americana plums with
which it must be compared. Though supposed to be a cross between _Prunus
americana_ and _Prunus triflora_, the variety shows few, if any, traces
of the Triflora parentage, except, possibly in the shape and color of
the fruit. The variety is distinguished from other Americana plums by
reddish dots on the fruit instead of the yellowish dots commonly found
on the plums of this species. The fruit of Ames is very attractive in
color, the quality is fair, it keeps and ships well and it is fairly free
from rot, characters which make it desirable where the native plums are
grown.
This variety was produced by Professor J. L. Budd[204] of Ames, Iowa,
by crossing De Soto with pollen of a “large Japanese plum received from
Oregon.” For a long while it was known as De Soto × Oregon No. 3 and as
Japan Hybrid No. 3, but was named Ames by Professor John Craig, now of
Cornell University.
Tree of medium size, spreading, dense-topped, hardy,
productive; branches roughish, thorny, the trunk shaggy, dark
ash-brown, with numerous, large, raised lenticels; branchlets
willowy, thick, long, with long internodes, green changing
to dark chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, thickly strewn with
conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short,
obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves falling early, flattened, oval, two inches wide,
four inches long; upper surface dark green, glabrous,
slightly rugose; lower surface light green, pubescent; apex
taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely serrate, the
serrations ending in hair-like tips, eglandular; petiole
seven-eighths inch long, slender, pubescent, tinged red,
glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish-red
glands.
Blooming season medium in time and length; flowers appearing
after the leaves, nearly one inch across, white; borne in
clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes or fours;
pedicels one-half inch long, slender, glabrous, greenish;
calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow,
somewhat acute, reflexed, pubescent on the inner surface,
the margin faintly pubescent and with a trace of red; petals
small, oval, somewhat dentate, tapering below to long,
narrow, slightly hairy claws; anthers yellowish; filaments
five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the
stamens in length, frequently defective.
Fruit mid-season, one and seven-sixteenths inches by one
and five sixteenths inches in size, ovate or oval, sides
compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring;
suture a line; apex roundish; color light to dark red over a
yellow ground, covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, small,
brownish-red; stem slender, glabrous; skin medium in thickness
and toughness, adhering; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, coarse,
fibrous, tender and melting, semi-sweet; of fair quality;
stone nearly free, one inch by five-eighths inch in size,
irregular-oval, flattened and elongated at the base, abruptly
pointed at the apex, very smooth; ventral suture winged and
furrowed; dorsal suture acute.
APPLE
[Illustration: APPLE]
_Prunus triflora_ ×?
=1.= Burbank _Cat._ 2. 1898. =2.= _Vt. Sta. Bul._ =67=:6.
1898. =3.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =12=:220. 1899. =4.= _Am.
Gard._ =21=:36. 1900. =5.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 203. 1901. =6.=
_Ga. Sta. Bul._ =68=:12, 35. 1905. =7.= _Mass. Sta. An. Rpt._
=17=:161. 1905.
The Apple is a conspicuous plum; its shape, color, size, flavor; its
firm, blood-red flesh and long-keeping quality, all distinguish it. Even
the tree is marked with its robust growth, flat-topped head, peculiar,
light brown bark, handsome foliage and wood that can be propagated from
cuttings with surprising ease. It is difficult to predict the future
of this interesting plum, but probably it will remain for most part a
curiosity. Its peculiar flavor is not pleasant at first taste and it is
doubtful if many will learn to like it. Unpalatability is the defect of
the variety which will most often be counted against it. In general the
Apple is inferior for dessert or kitchen to the Satsuma, itself none
too good, which it most nearly resembles of all plums. In the Station
collection tree and fruit are quite susceptible to both fungus and insect
pests and the fruits ripen unevenly. The fruit of the variety keeps and
ships remarkably well and these qualities may be its saving grace, both
so well developed as to make it valuable for breeding purposes when these
characters are desired.
In his catalog for 1898 Burbank announces the Apple as a new plum and
says, “Among the welcome surprises found three years ago among a lot of
some twenty-five thousand plum seedlings was this one, bearing a cruel
load of enormous plums when only two years old.... It was at once named
Apple from the very close resemblance in form, color general appearance,
and rare keeping qualities.... Its parentage is not known, except that
it is a second generation seedling from cross-bred seedlings, and no
doubt Satsuma and probably Robinson are in its line of ancestry.” Satsuma
characters are readily detected in tree and fruit and especially its
hard, red flesh, but in no way is its descent from Robinson apparent.
Tree of medium size, flat-topped, spreading, dense-topped,
slow-growing, semi-hardy, productive; branches rough and
thorny, with numerous fruit-spurs, dark ash-gray, reddish and
with numerous lenticels; branchlets often with a rosette of
flower-buds on the apex of the shoots, slender, with short
internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brown, glossy,
glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels;
leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oblanceolate, one and
one-quarter inches wide, three and three-quarters inches
long, thin, leathery; upper surface purplish-red late in the
season, glossy, glabrous, with grooved midrib; lower surface
light green, pubescent at the base of the veins; apex acutely
pointed, base cuneate, margin finely and doubly crenate and
with small amber glands; petiole five-eighths inch long,
pubescent, red along one side, with from three to ten large,
conspicuous, reniform, red or yellowish glands on the stalk.
Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing
before the leaves, white; borne in clusters on lateral buds
and spurs, in threes or fours; pedicels medium in length and
thickness, glabrous; calyx-tube obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes
narrow, obtuse, glandular-ciliate, glabrous, erect; petals
oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments of
medium length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens, often
defective.
Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches long, one and
three-quarters inches wide, roundish-oblate, compressed,
halves equal; cavity medium in depth and width, flaring,
with concentric russet rings; suture shallow; apex depressed
and at one side; color dull dark red, with waxy bloom; dots
numerous, large, russet, conspicuous, clustered about the apex;
stem five-eighths inch long, glabrous; skin tough, bitterish,
separating from the pulp; flesh dark red, juicy, firm but
tender, sweet, with pleasant mild flavor, aromatic; good; stone
clinging, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size,
oval or obovate, turgid, pointed, roughish, winged on the
ventral, deeply furrowed on the dorsal suture.
APRICOT
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 578. 1629. =2.= Rea _Flora_
209. 1676. =3.= Quintinye _Com. Gard._ 67, 69. 1699. =4.=
Duhamel _Trait. Arb. Fr._ =2=:93, Pl. XIII. 1768. =5.= Knoop
_Fructologie_ =2=:52, 53, 54. 1771. =6.= Kraft _Pom. Aust._
=2=:28, Tab. 173 fig. 1; =2=:34, Tab. 183 fig. 1. 1796. =7.=
Prince _Pom. Man._ 71. 1832. =8.= Kenrick Am. _Orch._ 255.
1832. =9.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 327. 1849. =10.= Elliott
_Fr. Book_ 424. 1854. =11.= Noisette _Man. Comp. Jard._
=2=:498. 1860. =12.= _Downing Fr. Trees Am._ 896, 952. 1869.
=13.= _Mas Pom. Gen._ =2=:133. 1873. =14.= _Le Bon Jard._ 338.
1882. =15.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 684, 1884. =16.= Mathieu _Nom.
Pom._ 421, 431, 454. 1889.
Apricocke 1. Apricock Plum 2. Abricot de France 5. _Abricot
Blanc_ 16. _Abricot Blanche_ 5. Abricot ordinaire 5. _Abricote_
5. _Abricote blanc_ 7, 12. Abricotée 4, 13. _Abricotée_ 6,
7, 10, 12, 16. _Abricotée Perdrigon_ 6. _Abricotée Blanche_
7, 12, 15, 16. Apricot Plum of Tours 7. _Abricote de Tours_
7. _Abricotée de Tours_ 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16. Apricot Plum
8. _Apricot Plum of Tours_ 10, 12, 16. _Abricotée Blanc_ 12.
_Aprikosenartige Pflaume_ 13. _Apricot_ 13. Aprikosenartige
Pflaume 16. _Apricot Plum_ 16. _Aprikosen Perdrigon_ 16.
Die Abrikosenartige Pflaume 6. Die Morillenpflaume 6.
_French Apricot_ 9. _Frühe Gelbe Kaiser Pflaume_ 16. _Gelbe
Apricosenartige Pflaume_ 13. _Gelbe Dauphins_ 16. _Gelbe
Reine-Claude_ 16. Gelbe Aprikosenpflaume 16. _Lieflander
Gelbe Pflaume_ 16. _Morillen Pflaume_ 16. _Old Apricot_ 12,
13, 15, 16. Prune-Abricot 11. Prune Abricotée 14. Prune
Abricotée Blanche 11. _Prune Abricotée de Tours_ 8. _Prune
Abricote_ 8. _Prune d’Abricot Ordinaire_ 5. _Prune d’Abricot
Blanch_ 5. _Prune d’Abricot bigarree_ 5. _Prune d’Abricot
de France_ 5. _Prune d’Abricot_ 16. _Red Apricot_ 10 incor.
_Reine-Claudenartige Aprikosen Pflaume_ 16. _Susina Massina
Piccola_ 16. _The New Apricot Plum_ 16. _Virginale_ 5. White
Apricot Plum 7, 12. _Wahre Aprikosen Pflaume_ 16. White apricot
12, 16. _Weisse Aprikosen Pflaume_ 16. _Yellow Apricot_ 10, 12,
13, 15, 16.
Since John Parkinson described the “Apricocke” plum in 1629, several
types of this variety have appeared in literature and these have become
so badly confused that it is impossible to separate them. However, as
the variety is nearly extinct, and will probably never be revived, this
confusion is happily of historic rather than of economic interest. Nearly
all writers recognize at least two types, one of which is superior to the
other. The better of these can readily be identified as the “Abricotée”
of Duhamel, and should be considered the true Apricot. Little is known of
the early history of this variety other than that it was very generally
distributed throughout Europe early in the Seventeenth Century. The
American Pomological Society rejected Apricot in 1858, though it is
doubtful if they had the true type. This variety is not to be confused
with the _Prunus simonii_, commonly called “Apricot,” or the native plum
of that name.
The following description is compiled: tree large, vigorous,
productive; fruit mid-season; large, roundish or slightly
elongated, with prominent suture, yellow, blushed with red,
overspread with thin bloom; flesh yellow, sweet, pleasant,
slightly musky; good; stone small, free.
ARCH DUKE
[Illustration: ARCH DUKE]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 684. 1884. =2.= _Ont. Fr. Gr. Assoc.
Rpt._ 35. 1891. =3.= _U. S. D. A. Pom. Rpt._ 45. 1895. =4.= _W.
N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ =42=:83. 1897. =5.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=131=:182. 1897. =6.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =169=:241, 242. 1899.
=7.= _Ibid._ =187=:77, 78. 1901. =8.= _Waugh Plum Cult._ 95.
1901. =9.= _Thompson Gard. Ass’t_ =4=:156 1901. =10.= _Ohio
Sta. Bul._ =162=:242, 243 fig., 254, 255. 1905.
_Late Diamond_ 1.
Arch Duke ought to become one of the leading plums for the market in
New York. The qualities which fit it for a high place among commercial
varieties are: large size, handsome color—a rich, dark purple with thick
bloom—and firmness of flesh and skin so that it both keeps and ships
well. The accompanying color-plate does not do the variety justice,
either in beauty, color or size of fruit. Arch Duke compared with Grand
Duke, known by all plum-growers, is nearly as large, neck thicker, the
same color, bloom heavier, quality higher, flesh firmer, stone free and
ripens earlier. The tree-characters, like the fruit-characters, are
all good. While this variety is suitable for both home and market use
it appears after a thorough test in many parts of the State for nearly
twenty years to be especially well adapted for a market fruit.
Arch Duke was raised by Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, England, from seed
of De Montfort, and was sent out in 1883. It was first noted in America
by the Ontario Fruit Growers’ Association in 1891 and was imported into
the United States by S. D. Willard[205] of Geneva, New York, about 1892.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, hardy in New York
except in exposed locations, very productive; branches smooth,
dark ash-gray, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets of
medium thickness and length, with long internodes, greenish-red
changing to brownish-red, glossy, covered thinly with bloom
and with sparse pubescence; lenticels numerous, very small,
obscure; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, free; leaf-scars
swollen.
Leaves folded upward, oval or obovate, one and five-eighths
inches wide, three and five-eighths inches long, thickish,
stiff; upper surface dark green, glossy, glabrous, with grooved
midrib; lower surface silvery-green, sparingly pubescent; apex
and base acute, margin doubly serrate, with small, dark glands;
petiole three-quarters inch long, pubescent along one side,
tinged red, usually with two large, globose, greenish-yellow
glands on the stalk or on the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across,
in the bud creamy-yellow changing to white when expanded; borne
in scattering clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in
pairs; pedicels nine-sixteenths inch long, glabrous, green;
calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse,
pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal
hairs, slightly reflexed; petals obovate or oval, crenate, with
short, broad claws; anthers yellowish, with a trace of pink;
filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to
the stamens in length.
Fruit late, season very short; one and three-quarters inches
by one and three-eighths inches in size, long-oval, slightly
compressed and necked; cavity shallow, narrow, compressed,
abrupt; suture shallow and rather broad, prominent; apex
elongated; color reddish-purple changing to dark blue at full
maturity, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, small,
brownish-russet, inconspicuous; stem often inserted at one side
of the base, five-eighths inch long, glabrous, adhering well to
the fruit; skin tough, adhering; flesh deep golden-yellow often
a little reddish, juicy, coarse, firm, but somewhat tender,
sweet, pleasant and sprightly; good; stone free, the cavity
larger than the pit, one and one-eighth inches by five-eighths
inch in size, long-oval, necked, abruptly tipped at the apex,
often reddish, rough; ventral suture broad, blunt, slightly
furrowed; dorsal suture with an indistinct shallow groove.
ARCTIC
[Illustration: ARCTIC]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 3d App. 182. 1881. =2.= _Am. Pom.
Soc. Cat._ 38. 1881. =3.= _Country Gent._ =49=:106. 1884. =4.=
_Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 96. 1887. =5.= _Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 289,
290. 1889. =6.= _Gard. & For._ =6=:526. 1892. =7.= _Can. Hort._
=16=:301. 1893. =8.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =103=:35. 1894. =9.=
_Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt._ 120. 1896. =10.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=131=:189. 1897. =11.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =113=:160. 1899. =12.=
_Mich. Sta. Bul._ =169=:241, 242. 1899. =13.= _Can. Exp. Farm
Bul._ =43=:33. 1903. =14.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 304.
1903. =15.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =67=:278. 1904. =16.= _Ohio Sta.
Bul._ =162=:256, 257. 1905.
Moore Arctic 8, 15. Moore’s Arctic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10,
11, 16. _Moore’s Arctic_, 13, 14.
Arctic is very generally supposed to be preeminent in two qualities,
hardiness and productiveness. On the grounds of this Station it is
both hardy and productive and from its behavior here it might well be
recommended for these qualities, but as to its hardiness elsewhere
pomologists do not agree. In the references given above, Downing says it
is the hardiest plum known; in Michigan it is reported very tender in the
nursery row; a Canadian writer says it is not hardy enough for Canada;
and it is reputed in the prairie states to be not hardier than Lombard.
The place of its origin, where few plums are grown, and the fact that it
is one of but few that can be grown in parts of Canada and New Brunswick
establish the claim that it is one of the hardiest of the Domesticas,
possibly not more so, however, than Lombard, Voronesh and a few others.
The small size and mediocre quality of the fruit and the dwarfish trees
should rule Arctic out where less hardy varieties can be grown.
This variety was first noted in 1881 by Downing who says it originated
on the grounds of A. T. Moore, Ashland, Maine, about forty miles
north of Bangor. The parentage of Arctic is unknown. According to the
originator, it was grown from a seed of a medium sized blue plum bought
at a fruit-stand in Boston. In 1881 Arctic was added to the American
Pomological Society catalog, where it still remains.
Tree small, of medium vigor, upright-spreading, very hardy,
productive, an early bearer, subject to attacks of fungi;
branches somewhat rough, dark ash-gray, with small lenticels;
branchlets strongly inclined to develop spurs and blossom-buds,
short, slender, with short internodes, greenish-red changing
to dark brownish-drab, dull, sparingly pubescent, with
inconspicuous, raised lenticels; leaf-buds short, obtuse,
appressed.
Leaves obovate or oval, two inches wide, three and
three-eighths inches long; upper surface dark green, covered
with numerous hairs, the midrib grooved; lower surface
silvery-green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base
acute, margin finely serrate, with small, black glands; petiole
five-eighths inch long, tinged red, pubescent, with from one to
four globose, green glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season of medium length; flowers appearing after
the leaves, one and three-sixteenths inches across, in the
bud creamy-yellow changing to white as the petals expand;
borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in
pairs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, pubescent, greenish;
calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes narrow,
obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, serrate, with ciliate
margins, reflexed; petals narrow-obovate or oval, crenate,
short-clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments one-half inch long;
pistil pubescent at the base, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period long; one and three-eighths
inches by one and one-quarter inches in size, oval or ovate,
slightly swollen on the suture side, compressed, halves equal;
cavity very shallow and narrow, abrupt; suture shallow,
indistinct; apex roundish; color dark purple becoming
purplish-black at full maturity, covered with thick bloom;
dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous, clustered about
the apex; stem slender, seven-eighths inch long, pubescent,
adhering to the fruit; skin of medium thickness and toughness,
separating readily; flesh light yellow, juicy, coarse and
fibrous, somewhat firm but tender, sweetish, mild; fair
in quality; stone nearly free, characteristically small,
seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, flattened at
the apex, acute at the base, rough and pitted; ventral suture
ridged, faintly winged; dorsal suture broadly and shallowly
grooved.
ARKANSAS
[Illustration: ARKANSAS]
_Prunus munsoniana_
=1.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 162. 1881. =2.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=38=:60, 86. 1892. =3.= _Tex. Sta. Bul._ =32=:478. 1894. =4.=
_Wis. Sta. Bul._ =63=:27. 1897. =5.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 192,
194 fig. 1901. =6.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 293. 1903.
=7.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 488. 1904.
Arkansas Lombard 1, 2, 3, 4, 7. _Arkansas Lombard_ 5, 6.
Arkansas, as the synonymy shows, originally, and even now, usually has
Lombard as a suffix, but the name is misleading as the plum is in no
wise like a Lombard and following the rules of the American Pomological
Society it has been dropped in _The Plums of New York_. On the grounds of
this Station, Arkansas is one of the most valuable plums of its species,
being unusually attractive in size, color and shape and one of the best
in quality of its kind. Its chief fault is a lack of robustness in the
tree. While it would not prove profitable as a market plum in New York,
it could be well planted in a commercial orchard in regions where native
plums must be grown, and in New York it would at least add a pleasing
variety to any collection of plums. This variety was brought to notice by
T. V. Munson in 1881. It originated in Arkansas and was introduced by J.
D. Morrow & Sons of that state.
Tree small, flattened, spreading, dense-topped, symmetrical,
hardy, productive, somewhat subject to shot-hole fungus;
trunk shaggy; branches rough, zigzag, sparingly thorny, dark
ash-gray, with numerous lenticels; branchlets slender, with
very short internodes, greenish-red changing to reddish-brown,
glossy, glabrous, with few, conspicuous, raised lenticels;
leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, free.
Leaves folded upward, lanceolate, peach-like, one and
one-quarter inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thin;
upper surface light green, smooth, glabrous, with grooved
midrib; lower surface pale green, sparingly pubescent along the
midrib and larger veins; apex taper-pointed, base acute, margin
finely serrate, with light brown glands; petiole one-half inch
long, slender, pubescent on one side, dull red, with from one
to six small, globose, yellow or brownish-red glands.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the
leaves, five-eighths inch across, in the buds creamy-yellow
changing to white as they unfold; with a strong disagreeable
odor; borne in very dense clusters on lateral buds and spurs,
in threes or fours; pedicels one-half inch long, slender,
glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous;
calyx-lobes short, sparingly pubescent on the inner surface,
glandular-serrate, faintly hairy and with a trace of red on
the margin, erect; petals obovate, crenate, with narrow claws,
somewhat hairy at the base; anthers yellowish; filaments nearly
one-quarter inch in length; pistil glabrous, slightly shorter
than the stamens.
Fruit early, season very long; one inch by seven-eighths inch
in size, roundish-ovate, halves slightly unequal; cavity
shallow, flaring, regular; suture an indistinct line; apex
roundish or pointed; color bright currant-red, with thin
bloom; dots smallish, white, conspicuous, clustered about the
apex; stem very slender, five-eighths inch long, glabrous, not
adhering to the fruit; skin thin, tough, bitter, separating
readily; flesh orange-yellow, juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender
and melting, sweet at the skin but sour at the center,
aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half
inch in size, oval, flattened and prolonged at the base,
sharp-tipped at the apex; ventral suture acute, faintly ridged;
dorsal suture acute.
AUTUMN COMPOTE
[Illustration: AUTUMN COMPOTE]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= McIntosh _Bk. Gard._ =2=:533. 1855. =2.= _Gard. Chron._
=26=:364. 1866. =3.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 351. 1866. =4.= Downing
_Fr. Trees Am._ 897. 1869. =5.= Mas _Le Verger_ =6=:71, fig.
36. 1866-73. =6.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 685. 1884. =7.= Thompson
_Gard. Ass’t_ =4=:156. 1901.
_Autumn Compote_ 5. Compote d’Automne 5.
This plum is well and favorably known in England, but it is scarcely
grown in America, though it has much in the character of its fruit at
least to recommend it. The plums are attractive in appearance and while
not of the highest flavor are yet far above the average in the qualities
which make a good dessert fruit, while for culinary purposes it ranks
among the best. The trees are productive, hardy and fairly vigorous and
may be especially noted as holding their crop well. Autumn Compote is a
seedling of Cooper, raised by Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, England,
about 1840.
Tree of medium size and vigor, spreading, rather low and
open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth, dark
brownish-gray, with lenticels intermediate in number and size;
branchlets few, slender, very short, with long internodes,
greenish-red changing to dark brownish-red, dull, sparingly
pubescent early in the season, becoming heavily pubescent
later, with few, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds
long, pointed, free.
Leaves drooping, folded backward, long-oval or obovate, two and
one-eighth inches wide, four and one-fourth inches long, thick;
upper surface dark green, smooth, hairy, with deeply grooved
midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex acute, base
tapering, margin crenate, eglandular; petiole thick, one-half
inch long, tinged red, glandless or with from one to four
globose, greenish-yellow, large glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing after
the leaves, one and one-quarter inches across, in the
buds creamy-yellow changing to white as the flowers open;
borne in clusters on short lateral spurs, singly or in
pairs; pedicels nearly one-half inch long, glabrous, green;
calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes
broad, obtuse, glandular-serrate, sparingly pubescent on both
surfaces, reflexed; petals oval, narrowly dentate, with very
short and broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments nearly
seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the
stamens.
Fruit late, ripening period of medium length; one and
five-eighths inches by one and three-eighths inches in size,
oval or slightly ovate, halves unequal; cavity shallow, narrow,
abrupt; suture shallow, a distinct line; apex roundish or
slightly pointed; color purplish-red over a yellow ground,
covered with bloom of medium thickness; dots numerous,
small, light russet, conspicuous; stem glabrous, adhering
to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating readily; flesh
golden-yellow, dry, firm but tender, sweet, not high in flavor;
fair in quality; stone clinging but not tenaciously, one inch
by five-eighths inch in size, irregularly and broadly ovate,
flattened, roughish, slightly compressed and necked at the
base, blunt or acute at the apex; ventral suture narrow,
winged, strongly furrowed; dorsal suture acute or faintly
furrowed.
BARTLETT
_Prunus triflora_ × _Prunus simonii_
=1.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 53. 1897. =2.= _Vt. Sta. Bul._
=67=:7. 1898. =3.= Burbank _Cat._ 1899. =4.= _Can. Hort._
=25=:411. 1902. =5.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =68=:6. 1905. =6.= De
Vries _Plant Breeding_ 226. 1907.
Bartlett was grown by Burbank from a cross of _Prunus simonii_ with
Delaware, the latter one of his earliest hybrids. The originator
disposed of the variety in 1899 and it immediately became popular with
nurserymen and was soon offered for sale in all parts of the United
States. Fruit-growers have not received it so well, however, and most
of those who have tried it have discarded it or hold the variety as a
curiosity. The fruit is attractive in appearance and the Bartlett pear
flavor is agreeable, but the skin cracks badly in this State and the
flesh is too soft for shipping. The tree with its stiff, upright branches
resembles a Lombardy poplar and with its bright, glossy green foliage is
an attractive ornamental. It is still further peculiar in bearing thick
clusters of flowers at the ends of lateral spurs.
Tree lacking in size and vigor, upright, open-topped, not very
hardy, productive; branches rough, with numerous fruit-spurs;
branchlets slender, short, glabrous throughout the season;
leaf-buds plump; leaves folded upward, oblanceolate, one and
one-half inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, thin;
margin finely serrate, in two series, eglandular or with small,
dark glands; petiole slender, with from one to four small
glands; blooming season early, long; flowers appearing before
the leaves.
Fruit very early; one and three-eighths inches by one and
one-quarter inches in size, long-cordate to slightly oval,
dark purplish-red over yellow, covered with thick bloom;
skin tender, bitter; flesh yellow, not very juicy, tender,
sweet, with a peculiar but pleasant flavor; of good quality;
stone clinging, seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size,
elongated-ovate, narrow, blunt at the base, long drawn out at
the apex, the surfaces rough.
BASSETT
_Prunus maritima_
=1.= _Gard. Mon._ =17=:335. 1875. =2.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=38=:75. 1892. =3.= Bailey _Ev. Nat. Fruits_ 214. 1898. =4.=
Waugh _Plum Cult._ 229. 1901. =5.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:254,
255. 1905. =6.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._ =93=:10. 1905.
Bassett’s American 2, 3. _Bassett’s American_ 4.
Bassett, the best known of the few cultivated varieties of _Prunus
maritima_, was found growing wild in New Jersey and was turned over to
a nurseryman, Wm. F. Bassett of Hamilton, New Jersey, who introduced it
in 1872. After its introduction it became somewhat popular in the West,
gaining quite a reputation as being “curculio proof,” However, its marked
inferiority to varieties of other species, in both size and quality, has
now banished it from all commercial plantings. The following description
is compiled.
Tree vigorous, spreading. Fruit late mid-season; very small,
roundish, dull red, covered with thin bloom; skin thick, tough;
flesh greenish-yellow; quality poor; stone of medium size,
roundish, smooth, free.
BAVAY
[Illustration: BAVAY]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Gard. Chron._ =6=:65. 1846. =2.= _Mag. Hort._ =12=:340.
1846. =3.= _Horticulturist_ =1=:527. 1846. =4.= Lee _Gen.
Farmer_ =10=:241. 1849. =5.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 328.
1849. =6.= Elliott _Fr. Book_ 423. 1854. =7.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 210. 1856. =8.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 370. fig. 1857.
=9.= _U. S. D. A. Rpt._ 190, Pl. XII. 1865. =10.= Hogg _Fruit
Man._ 379. 1866. =11.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 897. 1869.
=12.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No. 6. 1871. =13.= Mas _Le Verger_
=6=:93, fig. 47. 1866. =14.= Oberdieck _Deut. Obst. Sort._
437. 1881. =15.= _Cat. Cong. Pom. France_ 363. 1887. =16.=
_Rev. Hort._ 515. 1888. =17.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 422. 1889.
=18.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =129=:32, 33. 1896. =19.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =131=:191. 1897. =20.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =169=:241, 242.
1899. =21.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 96. 1901. =22.= _Va. Sta. Bul._
=134=:40. 1902. =23.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:241. 1905.
_Bavay’s Green Gage_ 17, 21. Bavay’s Green Gage 11. _Bavay’s
renkloie_ 12. Bavay’s Reine Claude 17. _Bavays Reine-Claude_
13. _De Bavay_ 15. _Monstreuse de Bavay_ 15. _Monstrueuse de
Bavay_ 10, 11, 12, 17. _Prune de Bavay_ 12, 17. Queen Claude
of Bavay 6. _Reine Claude_ 21, 23. Reine-Claude de Bavay 2,
3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19. _Reine-Claude de
Bavay_ 6, 11, 13, 17, 18, 21. Reine-Claude Monstreuse de
Bavey 1. _Reine-Claude Monot_ 17. Reine-Claude von Bavays 14.
_St. Claire_ 10. _Saint Clair_ 11, 17. _Sainte-Claire_ 17.
_Saint-Claire_ 12.
Bavay is one of the best of the green plums—a worthy rival in all
respects and in some superior to its parent Reine Claude. It is
unexcelled as a dessert plum and its delicious flavor is retained in
cooking, making the somewhat rare combination of a first rate dessert
and a first rate culinary fruit. Bavay is not only satisfactory in the
qualities which make it desirable to the consumer but it is a good
market plum for it both keeps and ships well. The flavor is not quite
equal to that of Reine Claude, one of the best of all plums in quality,
but in tree-characters the Bavay surpasses the older variety. The trees
bear young, annually and heavily, sometimes too heavily, and while not
as hardy, as large, as robust or as long-lived as could be wished, yet
in these respects they are superior to those of most of the varieties
of Reine Claude plums. Some horticulturists recommend that the Bavay
be top-worked on a more vigorous, hardy and longer-lived stock but the
behavior of trees so treated in this vicinity makes top-working a very
doubtful expedient. Lombard is usually recommended as a stock upon
which to work it. Bavay is indispensable in home orchards and can be
recommended for much more general planting in commercial orchards.
This variety is a seedling of Reine Claude produced by Major Esperin of
Malines, Belgium, about 1832, and dedicated by him in 1843, to M. De
Bavay, Director of the Royal Nurseries, at Vilvordes, near Brussels.
Though this variety is distinct from its parent in tree-characters, in
having a later season, smaller fruit and a different flavor, the two
plums have become confused by many nurserymen and horticulturists. In
1856, the American Pomological Society placed Bavay on its fruit catalog
list where it still remains.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped,
hardy, very productive, somewhat susceptible to sunscald;
branches smooth except for the few, large, raised lenticels,
light ash-gray; branchlets medium in thickness and length, with
internodes of variable length, dull brownish-red, pubescent,
with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large,
long, pointed, appressed.
Leaves folded backward, oval, or slightly obovate, wide, long,
thick; upper surface nearly smooth, covered sparsely with
hairs; lower surface thickly pubescent, especially along the
midrib and larger veins; apex acute; margin crenate, glandless;
petiole thick, long, tinged lightly with red, glandless or with
from one to three globose, greenish-yellow glands on the stalk
or base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across,
whitish or creamy at the apex of the petals; borne on lateral
buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-eighths inch
long, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, obconic, pubescent
at the base; calyx-lobes rather broad, obtuse, pubescent on
both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals broadly
obovate, crenate, tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers
yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil pubescent
on the ovary, longer than the stamens.
Fruit late, season long; of medium size, roundish-oval, halves
equal; cavity intermediate in depth and width, abrupt; suture
a line; apex roundish; color greenish-yellow changing to dark
straw-yellow, obscurely streaked and splashed, covered with
thin bloom; dots numerous, small, grayish, obscure, clustered
about the apex; stem thick, short, pubescent, adhering well
to the fruit; skin rather tough, separating readily; flesh
rich golden-yellow, juicy, slightly fibrous, tender, sweet,
pleasant flavor; very good; stone free, seven-eighths inch by
five-eighths inch in size, oval, slightly necked, blunt at
the apex, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged, deeply
furrowed; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
BEJONNIERES
_Prunus insititia_
=1.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 898. 1869. =2.= _Cat. Cong. Pom.
France_ 472. 1887. =3.= _Ibid._ 453. 1906.
Des Béjonnières 2, 3. _Prune des Béjonnières_ 1.
This variety is so highly prized in France that it is here recommended
for trial even though the trees as they grow in this part of New York
have not been productive. It is too small for a dessert plum but might
become of value here if used as in France for tarts, spices, preserves
and drying. The plum originated about 1827 in the nursery of Andre Leroy,
Béjonnieres, Angers, France.
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright-spreading, unproductive;
leaf-scars swollen; leaves oval, medium in width and length;
margin with small dark glands, finely serrate; petiole with
none or from one to six glands, usually on the stalk; flowers
appearing after the leaves, tinged creamy-white as they open;
borne on lateral buds and spurs, in pairs or in threes.
Fruit late, season of medium length; one and three-eighths
inches by one and one-quarter inches in size, obovate, a little
necked, yellow, blotched with red on the exposed cheek, covered
with thin bloom; stem long; apex strongly depressed; flesh pale
yellow, firm but tender, sweet, aromatic; very good; stone
semi-clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size,
oval.
BELGIAN PURPLE
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Downing =Fr. Trees Am.= 373. 1857, =2.= Hogg _Fruit Man._
351. 1866. =3.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No. 27. 1871. =4.= Mas _Le
Verger_ =6=:105. 1866-73. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 36. 1877.
=6.= _Cat. Cong. Pom. France_ 340. 1887. =7.= _Guide Prat._
153, 352. 1895.
_Bleue de Perk_ 4. _Bleue de Bergues_ 3, 7. _Bleue de Belgique_
1, 7. _Bleu de Perque_ 1. _Blaue von Belgien_ 4, 7. _Bleu de
Bergues_ 6. _Bleu de Peck_ 6. _Belgian Purple_ 4, 6, 7. Bleue
de Belgique 7. _Belgische Damascene_ 7. _Bleue de Perck_ 7.
Bleu de Belgique 6. _Fertheringham_ 3 incor. Prune Bleue de
Belgique 3.
Belgian Purple is a medium grade plum of little value for dessert but
rather highly esteemed for culinary purposes, especially in Europe. It
probably has but a small place in American pomology. Concerning the
origin of the variety, nothing is known although it is generally believed
to have originated in Belgium prior to 1850.
Tree large, vigorous, round and dense-topped, not always
hardy, very productive; branchlets numerous, thick, pubescent
throughout the season; leaf-scars prominent; leaves flattened
or folded upward, oval, one and five-eighths inches wide, three
and one-half inches long; margin serrate or crenate; petiole
five-eighths inch long, glandless or with from one to two small
glands usually at the base of the leaf; flowers nearly one inch
across, white, with a peculiar greenish and creamy tinge near
the apex of the petals and often splashed with pink towards
the base; borne on lateral buds and spurs; calyx-tube thickly
pubescent.
Fruit mid-season; medium to below in size, roundish-oval,
purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; flesh rich,
golden-yellow, medium juicy, firm, sweet, mild; fair to good;
stone nearly free, of medium size, oval, flattened, often with
a distinct wing.
BELLE
[Illustration: BELLE]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Horticulturist_ =10=:71. 1855. =2.= Downing _Fr. Trees
Am._ 394. 1857. =3.= _Flor. & Pom._ 144, Pl. 1863. =4.= Hogg
_Fruit Man._ 351, 384. 1866. =5.= Mas _Le Verger_ =6=:27,
fig. 14. 1866-73. =6.= _Le Bon Jard._ 341. 1882. 7. Barry
_Fr. Garden_ 410. 1883. 8. Decaisne & Naudin _Man. Am. des
Jard._ =4=:382. =9.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 449, 451. 1889. =10.=
_Garden_ =50=:295. 1896. =11.= Rivers _Cat._ 33. 1898. =12.=
Fish _Hardy-Fr. Bk._ =2=:55. =13.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_
=4=:156. 1901. =14.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 96. 1901.
Autumn Beauty 11. _Autumn Beauty_ 9. _Belle de Septembre_ 9,
11, 14. Belle de Septembre 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 13. _Gros Rouge
de Septembre_ 3, 4, 9. _Lawrence Early_ 9. _Regina nova_ 6.
_Reine-Claude Rouge_ 9. _Reine-Claude Rouge de Septembre_ 5, 9.
Reine-Claude Rouge of September 2. Reine-Claude Rouge de Van
Mons 5, 6, 8. _Reine-Claude Rouge de Van Mons_ 9. _Reine-Claude
Rouge Van Mons_ 4, 9. _Reine Nova_ (Berre) 9. _Reina Nova_ 2,
3, 4, 9. _Rote Claude_ 9. _Reine Nova_ 9. _Schöne September
Königspflaume_ 9. Van Mons Königspflaume 9. _Van Mons
Königspflaume_ 5. _Van Mons Red_ 9. Van Mons’ Red 4. _Van Mons
Red Gage_ 5, 9.
Belle is an unusually large, handsome plum but unfortunately is not of
very high quality. It is much like Pond but is brighter red, a little
smaller, less necked, the stem is shorter, the apex more blunt and it
is more of a clingstone. European authorities say that Belle is second
to none for culinary purposes and its handsome appearance gives it
value across the seas as a dessert plum. As Belle grows on the grounds
of this Station—it seems not to be found elsewhere in New York—the
tree-characters are quite above those in the average variety of plums and
when considered with the fine, late fruits, indicate that the variety
might be grown with profit for market purposes. It well deserves to be
tried by commercial plum-growers.
Belle came from Brussels, Belgium, and was propagated by the famous
horticulturist, Van Mons. Nothing further is known of its origin.
Tree above medium in size, vigorous, upright, open-topped,
hardy, productive; branches smooth, dull dark ash-gray, with
small, numerous, raised lenticels; branchlets thick, with short
internodes, green changing to brownish-red, often marked with
scarf-skin, dull, very pubescent early in the season becoming
less pubescent as maturity advances, with numerous, small
lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, free.
Leaves flattened or folded upward, obovate, one and
seven-eighths inches wide, four and one-half inches long,
thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, with deeply
grooved midrib, sparingly hairy; lower surface silvery-green,
pubescent; apex acute, base cuneate, margin shallowly but
broadly crenate, with few small dark glands; petiole one and
one-eighth inches long, thick, pubescent, tinged with light
red, glandless or with one or two small, globose, yellowish
glands on the stalk or base of the leaf.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the
leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, the buds cream-tipped
changing to white on expanding; borne on lateral buds and
spurs, usually singly; pedicels about seven-sixteenths
inch long, thick, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish,
campanulate, glabrous except towards the base; calyx-lobes
above medium in width, obtuse, slightly pubescent on both
surfaces, glandular-serrate, erect; petals broadly ovate,
crenate, with short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments
five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the
stamens in length.
Fruit late, season of medium length; one and seven-eighths
inches by one and three-quarters inches in size, roundish-oval,
slightly compressed, halves nearly equal; cavity shallow,
flaring; suture shallow, rather wide, prominent; apex roundish
or depressed; color light purplish-red over a greenish-yellow
ground, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small,
russet, inconspicuous; stem one-half inch long, thickly
pubescent, adhering strongly to the fruit, with fleshy ring
about the base; skin of average thickness and toughness, sour,
separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, juicy, coarse,
firm, sweet at the skin, but tart at the center, pleasant,
aromatic; good; stone clinging, one and three-sixteenths inches
by three-quarters inch in size, oval, turgid, blunt at the
apex, with rough and pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged,
with few but prominent ridges; dorsal suture widely and deeply
grooved.
BERCKMANS
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 53, 99. 1889. =2.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =62=:20. 1894. =3.= _Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 95. 1895.
=4.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =106=:43, 44. 1896. =5.= _Rural N.
Y._ =56=:614. 1897. =6.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 26. 1897. =7.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul._ =175=:138, 143. 1899. =8.= _Rural N. Y._
=62=:582. 1903. =9.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =68=:9, 28. 1905.
_Botan_ of some 2, 4. Botan White 6. Sweet Botan 1. _Sweet
Botan_ 2, 3, 4. _True Sweet Botan_ 2, 4, 9. White-fleshed Botan
1. _White-fleshed Botan_ 2, 4, 8, 9.
This variety was introduced by Luther Burbank in 1887 from imported
stock. P. J. Berckmans[206] of Augusta, Georgia, who had secured some
Botan trees from Burbank, noted that this plum differed from the rest
and, in order to distinguish it, named it Sweet Botan. The nomenclature
of Botan was confused and indefinite and Bailey, in 1894, renamed the new
plum Berckmans. As it is very similar to Abundance, still more confusion
has arisen in regard to it. Compared with Abundance, Berckmans is more
spreading in growth; fruit less pointed, with dryer and more insipid
flesh; color brighter red and the stone usually freer; but it is neither
as productive nor as free from rot. In 1897 the American Pomological
Society placed the variety on its fruit list. As Berckmans is inferior
to Abundance and ripens at the same season, it is not worth recommending
for general planting. It is to be regretted that so distinguished a
horticulturist as Mr. Berckmans is not to have his name perpetuated in a
better plum than the one named in his honor.
BERGER
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =62=:20, 21 fig., 31. 1894. =2.= Ibid,
=106=:45, 62, 67. 1896. =3.= Ibid, =139=:46. 1897. =4.= Ibid,
=175=:132, 133 fig. 26. 1899. =5.= _Texas Sta. Bul._ =32=:486
fig. 7, 490, 492. 1899. =6.= _W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 92.
1899. =7.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:248 fig., 254, 255. 1905.
_Honsmomo_ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. _Red Nagate_ 1, 2 incor. _Satsuma_
1, 2 incor. _Shiro Smomo_ 1, 2, 5. Strawberry 1, 3, 6.
_Strawberry_ 2, 4. _Uchi Bene_ 6. Uchi-Beni 1, 2, 5.
_Uchi-Beni_ 3, 4. _Ura-Beni_ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
At first sight Berger is a wholly insignificant plum, being no larger
than a sweet cherry; but the variety is so distinct in several
characters that every collection should have a tree or two of it and
the plum-breeder will find it most interesting and valuable. Its
peculiarities are: A flavor quite distinct from that of any other
Triflora plum; its cherry-like appearance; early ripening, maturing in
this State shortly after the middle of July; its pronounced upright habit
of growth; its light green foliage; and its habit of bearing its fruit
close to the old wood. In common with many other Japanese varieties,
the nomenclature of Berger is badly confused. According to Bailey, who
received specimens of this variety from various sections of the country,
H. H. Berger & Company of San Francisco sent out this plum under several
names. Berckmans of Georgia received it as Red Nagate; N. S. Platt of
Connecticut as Satsuma; to another person in the South it came as Shiro
Smomo, while T. V. Munson of Texas grew it under the name of Berger,
a term finally adopted by Bailey. In the meanwhile, Stark Brothers of
Louisiana, Missouri, introduced a plum very similar to this under the
name Strawberry but the variety was dropped by them in 1893. Whether or
not this “Strawberry” or “Uchi-Beni,” as it was sometimes called, was
really the Berger it is impossible to say but it is certain that both of
these names have been applied to the Berger. The following description is
a compilation.
Tree vigorous, upright, open-topped, medium hardy; leaves
narrow, light colored; blooming season early; flowers white,
small.
Fruit very early; unusually small, roundish but truncate at the
ends, attractive light to dark red, covered with thick bloom;
flesh firm, meaty, light yellow, sweet, of pleasant flavor;
fair to good; stone very small and cherry-like, free, with
smooth surfaces.
BLACK BULLACE
[Illustration: BLACK BULLACE]
_Prunus insititia_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 576, 578. 1629. =2.= Gerard
_Herball_ 1498. 1636. =3.= Miller _Gard. Dict._ =3=:1754. =4.=
Abercrombie _Gard. Ass’t_ 13. 1786. =5.= Deane _N. E. Farmer
Dict._ 266. 1797. =6.= Miller _Gard. Dict._ =3=:1807. =7.=
_Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 144. 1831. =8.= Phillips _Com. Orch._
306. 1831. =9.= Prince _Pom. Man._ =2=:105. 1832. =10.= Hogg
_Fruit Man._ 689. 1884. =11.= _Jour. Hort._ =27=:476. 1874.
=12.= _Garden_ =59=:226. 1901.
Black Bulleis 1. Bullesse 2. _Earley’s November_ 11.
This variety is interesting chiefly as an early type of the Insititia
plums, its thorny branches, wayward growth, small and austere fruit,
all bespeaking a wild fruit. The plums when ripened by frost are not
unpleasant to taste and are borne in prodigious quantities. The variety,
however, is surpassed by many other Insititias and has little value
other than to show the steps between wild and highly cultivated fruits.
Black Bullace is one of the oldest of cultivated plums and all data in
regard to its origin have been lost. It resembles the wild forms of
its species very closely and it may have been selected from the wild.
Parkinson, writing in 1629, (References, 1) gives a short description of
this variety; and Gerard, in 1636, (References, 2) says: “The Bullesse
and the Sloe tree are wilde kindes of Plums, which do vary in their
kind, even as the greater and manured Plums do. Of Bullesse, some are of
greater and of better taste than others. Sloes are some of one taste, and
some of others, more sharp; some greater and others lesser; the which to
distinguish with long descriptions were to small purpose, considering
they be all and every of them known even to the simplest; therefore
this shall suffice for their several descriptions.” Black Bullace has
long been known in England and was among the first European varieties
cultivated in this country. Deane in _The New England Farmer_, 1797,
describes this variety briefly as under cultivation at that time but it
did not prove popular in North America and after Prince, 1832, it seems
to have dropped from American plum literature.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright or slightly spreading,
dense-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth except
for the numerous, small, raised lenticels, dark, ash-gray;
branchlets long, with short internodes, green changing to dark
brownish-drab, thickly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous,
small lenticels; leaf-buds small short, obtuse, free.
Leaves oval, one and one-half inches wide, three and
one-quarter inches long; upper surface dark green, rugose,
hairy, with grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green,
heavily pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute,
margin serrate or crenate, with a few, smallish, dark glands;
petiole three-quarters inch long, green, thickly pubescent,
glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-brown
glands on the stalk or at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing with the leaves, seven-eighths inch across, white;
borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels
three-eighths inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube
green, campanulate, pubescent only at the base; calyx-lobes
narrow, obtuse, pubescent at margin and base, with few glands,
reflexed; petals oval, entire, tapering abruptly to short
claws; anthers yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch in
length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit late, season long; one and one-eighth inches by
seven-eighths inch in size, distinctly oval, necked, not
compressed, halves equal; cavity small, shallow, narrow,
flaring; suture lacking; apex roundish, with stigma usually
adhering; color purplish-black, covered with thick bloom;
dots numerous, small, brown, inconspicuous; stem one-half
inch long, pubescent, adhering to the fruit; skin of medium
thickness and toughness, slightly astringent, adhering
somewhat; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy and fibrous, firm,
sour or agreeably tart late in the season; stone clinging,
three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, irregularly oval
or ovate, slightly necked at the base, acute at the apex, with
pitted surfaces; ventral suture swollen, blunt; dorsal suture
acute or partially furrowed.
BLACKMAN
_Prunus hortulana_ × _Prunus persica_
=1.= _Gara. Mon._ =24=:82. 1882. =2.= Ibid, =29=:45, 302. 1887.
=3.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:77. 1892.
Blackman is supposed to be a hybrid between the Wild Goose plum and a
peach. According to Bailey, a Mrs. Charity Clark secured plum pits from
an orchard of Wild Goose and Washington plums in Rutherford County,
Tennessee, about 1865 and gave them to Dr. Blackman of Nashville of that
State. One of the seedlings appeared promising and was disseminated
by a local nurseryman under the name Blackman. A rival nurseryman in
attempting to procure cions of this variety inadvertently cut them
from an adjacent tree, a barren seedling from the same lot of seed.
Unfortunately the spurious Blackman received a wide distribution while
the true variety remained practically unknown. Afterwards in order to
avoid confusion the original Blackman was rechristened Charity Clark
under which name it is now known. The tree of the second Blackman is
strong and vigorous but rarely produces its plum-like fruit. The foliage
is about midway in character between the plum and peach; the fruit-buds
are formed abundantly but seldom open. From a horticultural standpoint,
the variety is of course worthless but the hybrid, one of the first of
its kind, is interesting and worth recording.
BLEEKER
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Prince _Pom. Man._ 25. 1828. =2.= Kenrick _Am. Orch._ 255.
1832. =3.= Manning _Book of Fruits_ 104. 1838. =4.= Downing
_Fr. Trees Am._ 273. 1845. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 54. 1852.
=6.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 515. 1859. =7.= Downing _Fr. Trees
Am._ 899. 1869. =8.= Mas _Le Verger_ =6=:21. 1866-1873. =9.=
Hogg _Fruit Man._ 686. 1884. =10.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 423.
1889. =11.= _Guide Prat._ 158, 364. 1895. 12. Waugh _Plum
Cult._ 96. 1901.
_Bleecker’s_ 11. Bleecker’s German Gage 1. _Bleecker’s German
Gage_ 2. Bleecker’s Gage 2, 4, 5, 6, 7. _Bleecker’s Gage_ 9,
10, 11, 12. Bleeker’s Gage 3. _Blucher’s Gage_ 6. Bleecker’s
Yellow 7. _Bleeker’s_ 10. _Bleecker’s Yellow Gage_ 7, 8, 11.
_Bleecker’s Gage_ 8. Bleeker’s Yellow 9. _Bleeker’s Gelbe
Zwetsche_ 11. Bleeker’s Gelbe Zwetsche 10. _Bleeker’s Yellow
Gage_ 9, 10. _Bleeker’s Gelbe Reine-Claude_ 10. _Bleeker’s
Gelbe Renklode_ 11. _Bleeker’s Yellow_ 10. _German Gage_ 4,
6, 7, 9, 10, 11. _Jaune de Bleeker_ 10, 11. _Reine-Claude de
Bleeker_ 10. Reine-Claude de Bleecker 8, 11.
Just why this old and one time popular plum is now so seldom grown cannot
be said. It is a delicious dessert plum of the Reine Claude group, much
like Yellow Gage but distinguished from it by a longer and stouter
stalk. Its tree-characters in New York are good and the fruit in all the
qualities that make plums desirable is as good as that of most of its
class. The variety originated with a Mrs. Bleeker of Albany, New York,
about 1810 from a pit given her by Rev. Mr. Dull of Kingston, New York.
This stone had come from Germany and was thought to have been that of
a German prune but this is probably an error as the seedlings of that
variety come true or nearly so. Bleeker was listed in the catalogs of the
American Pomological Society from 1852 to 1897.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped,
productive; trunk and branches thick and covered with rough
bark; branches slightly pubescent; leaves two and one-quarter
inches wide, four inches long, oval, stiff; upper surface
somewhat rugose; margin serrate; petiole five-eighths inch
long, thick, tinged red, with from two to three glands usually
on the stalk.
Fruit early; nearly one and one-half inches in diameter,
roundish-oval, greenish-yellow, striped and splashed with green
becoming golden-yellow at full maturity, overspread with thin
bloom; flesh golden-yellow, dry, coarse, firm, sweet, mild; of
good quality; stone semi-clinging, one inch by five-eighths
inch in size, obovate, acute at the apex, medium turgid, with
pitted surfaces.
BLUE PERDRIGON
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 576. 1629. =2.= Rea _Flora_ 208.
1676. =3.= Quintinye _Com. Gard._ 67, 68, 69, 1699. =4.=
Langley _Pomona_ 92, Pl. 23 fig. 4. 1729. =5.= Duhamel _Trait.
Arb. Fr._ =2=:85. 1768. =6.= Prince _Pom. Man._ =2=:66. 1832.
=7.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 290. 1845. =8.= Floy-Lindley
_Guide Orch. Gard._ 280, 293, 383. 1846. =9.= _U. S. Pat. Off.
Rpt._ 287. 1853. =10.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 687. 1884. =11.=
Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 452. 1889. =12.= _Guide Prat._ 154, 361.
1895.
_Blue Perdrigon_ 6, 7, 11, 12. _Brignole Violette_ 7, 10, 11,
12. _Battle Monument_ 10, 11. _Blaue Fasanen Pflaume_ 11, 12.
_Blauer Perdrigon_ 11, 12. Blew Perdrigon 2, 3. 4. Perdrigon
1, 3, 9. Perdrigon Violet 5, 12. _Perdrigon Violet_ 6, 8,
11. _Perdrigon Violette_ 7, 10. _Perdigon_ 8. _Perdigevena_
8. _Violet Perdrigon_ 4, 6, 7, 10, 11. Violet Perdrigon 6,
8. Violetter Perdrigon 11. _Violette Fasanen Pflaume_ 11.
_Violette Huhner Pflaume_ 11. _Violette Rebhuhn Pflaume_ 11.
_Violette Fasanenpflaume_ 12. _Violette Huhnerpflaume_ 12.
_Violetter Perdrigon_ 12. _Violettes Rebhuhnerei_ 11, 12.
Early records indicate that the Blue Perdrigon was introduced into
England from Italy. Hakluyt, writing in 1582, says, “Of late time the
Plum called the _Perdigevena_ was procured out of Italy, with two kinds
more, by the Lord Cromwell, after his travel.” Gough, in his _British
Topography_, states that Lord Cromwell introduced the “Perdrigon plum”
into England in the time of Henry VII. From these accounts it would seem
that this plum was established in England some time during the latter
part of the Fifteenth Century. For three hundred years it thrived so well
in England that writers had no hesitation in pronouncing it their best
plum. From England it came early to America. Probably it was included
in the shipment of plum pits ordered from England by the Governor and
Company of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in 1629. In spite
of its Old World reputation, however, it never found favor here and is
now rarely if ever seen even in collections. The older writers mentioned
a Black Perdrigon which they considered distinct from the variety under
discussion. Inasmuch as all plums until recently were propagated from
seed, it is more than likely that there were all gradations in color
and that some attempted to classify the darker seedlings as a distinct
variety. This hypothesis is borne out by the fact that after grafting
and budding became the common method of propagation the so-called Black
Perdrigon became extinct. The following description is a compilation.
Tree vigorous, but not always productive; young shoots
pubescent; fruit mid-season; medium in size, obovate,
compressed on the suture side, purple or blue, with
thick bloom; stem slender; skin thick, very tough; flesh
greenish-yellow, firm, rich, sweet, aromatic; good; stone
small, flattened, clinging; fruit hangs on the tree until it
shrivels.
BODDAERT
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 2d App. 156. 1876. =2.= _Am. Pom.
Soc. Cat._ 36. 1877. =3.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 687. 1884. =4.=
Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 423. 1889. =5.= Lucas _Vollst. Hand. Obst._
472. 1894. =6.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 97. 1901.
Boddaert’s Green Gage 1, 3. Boddart’s Green Gage 2. Boddaert’s
Reine Claude 4. _Boddaert’s Green Gage_ 4, 6. _Reine-Claude de
Boddaert_ 4. _Reine-Claude Boddaert_ 1, 3, 4. Reine-Claude von
Boddaert 4.
Boddaert has much to commend it, the fruit being surpassed by that of
but few other plums of its type—that of the Reine Claude. The plums are
large, attractive and of very good quality. Since the variety has been
known so long it must be that the tree has some fatal defect; otherwise
it would be more largely grown. Boddaert is probably a Reine Claude
seedling and is of foreign origin, the details of its early history not
being known. Downing, in 1876, first mentioned the variety in America;
the following year it was placed on the fruit list in the American
Pomological Society catalog.
Tree large, medium in vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped,
productive; trunk rough; branches smooth, except for a few,
raised lenticels; branchlets of medium thickness, brash,
thinly pubescent; leaves oval, two and one-quarter inches
wide, four inches long, thick and leathery; upper surface dark
green, rugose; margin crenate, with small dark glands; petiole
pubescent, thick, tinged red, usually with two globose glands.
Fruit mid-season; about one and one-half inches in diameter,
roundish-ovate, strongly compressed, yellow, mottled with green
before full maturity, overspread with thin bloom; stem thickly
pubescent; flesh light yellow, dry, meaty, tender, sweet; good
in quality; stone semi-free or free, seven-eighths inch by
five-eighths inch in size, oval or ovate, turgid, with pitted
surfaces.
BRADSHAW
[Illustration: BRADSHAW]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Mag. Hort._ =12=:341. 1846. =2.= _Horticulturist_
=10=:15, 253. 1855. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 190, 214. 1856.
=4.= _Cultivator_ =8=:25 fig. 1860. =5.= Mas _Pom. Gen._ =2=:3,
fig. 2. 1873. =6.= _Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 303. 1878. =7.= _Am.
Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 61, 118. 1883. =8.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 709.
1884. =9.= _Rural N. Y._ =44=:103. 1885. =10.= _Me. Pom. Soc.
Rpt._ 130. 1888. =11.= _Ibid._ 144. 1889. =12.= Mathieu _Nom.
Pom._ 434. 1889. =13.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =103=:32, 33, fig. 6.
1894. =14.= _Guide Prat._ 157, 359. 1895. =15.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =131=:182. 1897. =16.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =169=:242, 244.
1899. =17.= _W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ =44=:91. 1899. =18.=
Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ =4=:158. 1901. =19.= Waugh _Plum Cult._
97. 1901. =20.= _Ont. Fruit Exp. Sta. Rpt._ 16, 17 fig. 1902.
=21.= _Va. Sta. Bul._ =134=:40. 1902. =22.= _Can. Exp. Farm
Bul._ =43=:33. 1903. =23.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:239, 254,
255, 256. 1905.
_Black Imperial_ 5, 14. _Blue Imperial_ 5, 14, 19, 20.
_Bradshaw_ 9, 14. Grosse Schwarze Kaiser Pflaume 12. _Hart
Prune_ 17. Large Black Imperial 8, 14, 18. _Large Black
Imperial_ 2, 3, 12. _Mooney_ 9, 17. Niagara 7, 9, 10, 11.
_Niagara_ 13, 15, 17, ?19, 20, ?22, 23.
Bradshaw leads all other plums in number of trees in New York, according
to a survey of the leading orchards made in the preparation of _The Plums
of New York_. A study of the variety does not justify this popularity.
The trees grow rather slowly and are slow in coming into bearing; the
fruit is not especially high in quality and in many regions is attacked
by brown-rot too freely for profitable orchard culture. To offset these
faults the trees are large and well formed, bear regularly and heavily,
are hardy, robust and healthy, the best of recommendations, and the plums
are large, attractive in appearance and keep and ship well especially
if picked a little green. The variety, curiously enough, is not nearly
as badly attacked by San José scale as other plums. Probably one of
the reasons why Bradshaw is so largely grown in New York is that it is
easily handled in the nursery and quickly makes a very good nursery tree.
Bradshaw does not deserve the high place it holds with plum-growers,
and must give way sooner or later to better varieties for commercial
orchards. The value of the crop is greatly lessened in New York because
it ripens in the midst of the peach season.
Unfortunately, the origin of this plum is not known. The Europeans and
some Americans have held that it came from America but, since it is
identical with the Large Black Imperial, it must be of foreign origin. It
was named by C. M. Hovey in 1846, and was described in his _Magazine of
Horticulture_ with the following explanation: “For the want of a name to
distinguish a very large and excellent plum, exhibited for three or four
years in succession, by E. E. Bradshaw, Esq., Charlestown, we have called
it the Bradshaw plum.” Barry, in 1855, states in the _Horticulturist_
that he “received it from Wm. Kenrick, a nurseryman in Newton,
Massachusetts, under the name of Large Black Imperial; but as it has been
described in _Hovey’s Magazine_ as Bradshaw, we have adopted that name in
our catalog.” Though the name Bradshaw is incorrect according to the rule
of priority, it would now cause too much confusion to change it.
Niagara, a well known variety in this State, is identical with Bradshaw
in all characters, in spite of a supposedly distinct origin. According
to Mr. George Atwood of the State Department of Agriculture, a Mr. Moody
of Lockport exhibited, about 1870, the Mooney plum, afterwards named the
Niagara. Being interested in the variety, Mr. Atwood visited Mooney, at
Lockport, the man from whom Moody had secured his stock. In Mooney’s
yard were found several bearing trees, which had been grown from sprouts
taken from the original seedling tree, grown in Canada. These trees could
not be told from the Bradshaw. If the Niagara is distinct as to origin,
it is probably a seedling of Bradshaw. Bradshaw was recommended to
fruit-growers as a promising variety by the American Pomological Society
in 1856 and has since remained on the fruit list of the society.
Tree large, vigorous, broad-vasiform, dense-topped, hardy, very
productive; branches smooth except for the numerous, small,
raised lenticels, dark ash-gray; branchlets short, with long
internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, often with
heavy gray scarf-skin, dull, sparingly pubescent, with obscure,
small lenticels; leaf-buds variable in size and length,
pointed, free.
Leaves drooping, folded backward, obovate or oval, two inches
wide, four and one-quarter inches long, thickish; upper surface
dark green, rugose, pubescent, with a shallow groove on the
midrib; lower surface grayish-green, thickly pubescent; apex
acute, base abrupt, margin not regular, varying from coarsely
crenate to serrate, eglandular or with few, small, dark glands;
petiole three-quarters inch long, pubescent, reddish, glandless
or with from one to three large, globose, greenish-brown glands
on the stalk or at the base of the leaf.
Season of bloom short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one
and three-sixteenths inches across, the buds creamy changing
to white as the flowers expand; borne on lateral buds and
spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels nearly eleven-sixteenths
inch long, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate,
pubescent only at the base; calyx-lobes wide, obtuse, pubescent
on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, margins ciliate, reflexed;
petals broadly oval, erose, with short, broad claws; anthers
yellowish; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil
pubescent at the base, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season; two inches by one and three-quarters
inches in size, oval or obovate, compressed, halves equal;
cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt, with a fleshy ring around
the stem; suture very shallow; apex roundish or flattened;
color light purplish-red changing to dark reddish-purple at
maturity, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, small,
russet, inconspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem thick,
seven-eighths inch long, pubescent, adhering strongly to the
fruit; skin thin, somewhat tough, sour, separating readily;
flesh dull yellow, often with a trace of red when fully
mature, juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender, sweet, pleasant;
good; stone semi-free, flattened, one and one-quarter inches
by three-quarters inch in size, irregularly oval, necked at
the base, blunt at the apex, strongly roughened and pitted,
often with numerous, small, deep pits near the margins of both
ventral and dorsal sutures; ventral suture strongly furrowed
and winged; dorsal suture with a deep, narrow groove.
BRYANSTON
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 144. 1831. =2.= _Jour. Hort._ N.
S. =17=:286. 1869. =3.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 902. 1869.
=4.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 24. 1871. =5.= Barry _Fr. Garden_
411. 1883. =6.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 688. 1884. =7.= _Tenn. Sta.
Bul._ =3=: No. 5, 88. 1890. =8.= _Guide Prat._ 155. 1895. =9.=
Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ =4=:157. 1901. =10.= Waugh _Plum Cult._
98. 1901. =11.= _Mass. Sta. An. Rpt._ =17=:158. 1905.
Bryanstone 11. Bryanston Gage 1, 2, 6, 9. Bryanston’s Gage 3,
5, 7. _Bryanston’s Gage_ 10. Bryanstone Gage 4. Reine-Claude
Bryanston 8.
The fruits of Bryanston fall not a little short, all things considered,
of being as good as those of several other of the varieties in the Reine
Claude group of which this plum is a member. For this reason Bryanston
is not often rated by horticulturists as one of the best plums, but the
large, vigorous trees growing on the Station grounds are so especially
desirable for this variety, in a group which taken as a whole is noted
for poor trees, that it is here described among the leading plums. The
fruit is larger than that of Reine Claude but is less attractive in
color and shape and the quality is not as high. It is later than the
variety with which it has just been compared and the crop is not borne
as regularly. While this plum can hardly be recommended for extensive
orchard plantings, it yet has too many merits to be forgotten.
This variety is said to be the result of crossing Reine Claude and Golden
Drop at Bryanston Park, Blandford, England. It was first noted in the
London Horticultural Society fruit catalog in 1831 but no information in
regard to the date of its origin seems to have been published. In 1871
the American Pomological Society added it to its fruit catalog list but
dropped it in 1897.
Tree very large and vigorous, round-topped, open, hardy, very
productive; branches smooth, becoming rough near the trunk,
ash-gray, with lenticels of medium size and number; branchlets
somewhat slender, short, with long internodes, greenish-red
changing to dull reddish-brown, marked by scarf-skin, dull,
glabrous, with few, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds
above medium in size and length, pointed, free; leaf-scars
prominent.
Leaves folded backward, oval or obovate, one and five-eighths
inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, leathery; upper
surface dark green, sparingly hairy, with a shallow groove on
the midrib; lower surface yellowish-green, pubescent; apex
abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, bearing
small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, pubescent, with
a little red, glandless or with one or two small, globose,
yellowish glands.
Blooming season intermediate in time, short; flowers appearing
with the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white,
creamy at the apex of the petals in the newly opened flowers;
borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels
one-half inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube
green, campanulate, pubescent at the base; calyx-lobes broad,
obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-ciliate, somewhat
reflexed; petals roundish-ovate, erose; anthers yellow;
filaments about one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous except
at the base, slightly longer than the stamens; stigma large.
Fruit mid-season; one and five-eighths inches by one and
one-half inches in size, irregular roundish-truncate, halves
unequal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture usually
shallow, prominent; apex flattened or depressed; color dull
yellow with greenish streaks, sometimes with pinkish blush
about the cavity, mottled, overspread with thin bloom; dots
numerous, small, inconspicuous; stem thick, three-quarters inch
long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tough,
sour, separating readily; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, firm
but tender, sweet, aromatic; very good; stone nearly free,
seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, broadly oval,
turgid, slightly contracted at the blunt base, roundish at the
apex, with rough and pitted surfaces; ventral suture broad,
with a distinct but small wing; dorsal suture widely and deeply
grooved.
BURBANK
[Illustration: BURBANK]
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 53, 99. 1889. =2.= _U. S. D. A.
Rpt._ 392. 1891. =3.= Wickson _Cal. Fruits_ 360. 1891. =4.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul._ =106=:46, 63. 1896. =5.= _Ala. Col. Sta.
Bul._ =85=:445. 1897. =6.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 26. 1897. =7.=
_Am. Gard._ =19=:75, 132, 220, 792. 1898. =8.= _Mich. Sta.
Bul._ =169=:242, 249. 1899. =9.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =175=:143.
1899. =10.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 134. 1901. =11.= _W. N. Y. Hort.
Soc. Rpt._ 88. 1902. =12.= _Can. Hort._ =25=:272. 1902. =13.=
Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 308. 1903. =14.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._
=68=:11, 28. 1905. =15.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =162=:256. 1905.
=16.= DeVries _Plant Breeding_ 170. 1907.
_Persing Nos. 1 & 2_, 15. _Russian plum 20M._ 4. Wassu 4.
_Wassu_ 9.
Probably Abundance holds first place among the Triflora plums in New
York but Burbank is a close second and in many localities has first
preference. Abundance is in the lead chiefly because the trees of this
variety are larger and better formed and bear more fruit than those of
Burbank. To offset the advantages of Abundance the fruit of Burbank is of
better quality, more handsomely colored, keeps and ships better and is
less susceptible to brown-rot. The fruit of Burbank ripens a week or more
later than that of Abundance, which in most seasons is a slight advantage
for the first-named variety. The trees of this plum are distinguished
from those of all other plums by their low, spreading habit, flat top
and somewhat drooping branches, characters which make them more or less
difficult to handle in the orchard and very difficult to manage in the
nursery. The wood of Burbank is brittle, true of all Trifloras, but
a serious defect in this one. In common with other varieties of its
species, Burbank is less troubled with curculio and black-knot than the
European plums. The fruit of this variety begins to color some days
before ripe and should be picked before fully matured if it is to be kept
or shipped. Usually the best specimens of Burbank come from thinned trees
and thinning is a necessary operation in all commercial orchards. The
variety does not thrive in the South, being poor in quality and rotting
badly. In New York, Burbank is not being planted nearly so largely as a
few years ago, the Domesticas being much more profitable than this or
other Triflora plums. It is a very desirable variety for home plantations
in New York.
Burbank was produced from a plum pit sent to Luther Burbank[207] by
a Japanese agent in 1883.[208] The fruit of this variety proved to be
very superior and Mr. Burbank sent specimens of it to the Division of
Pomology, United States Department of Agriculture in 1887, where it was
named in honor of the introducer. Wassu, introduced by J. L. Normand,
and the Russian plum, 20 M, sent out by Professor J. L. Budd proved to
be indistinguishable from the Burbank as tested by Bailey, but Kerr[209]
thinks the Wassu is a distinct variety. The American Pomological Society
added Burbank to the fruit list in its catalog in 1897.
Tree large, vigorous, distinguished by its low, sprawling habit
and flat open top, unusually hardy for a Japanese variety,
very productive, healthy; branches somewhat roughish, dark
ash-gray, thickly covered with fruit-spurs, with few, large,
raised lenticels; branchlets medium in thickness and length,
with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brown,
with gray scarf-skin, glossy, glabrous, with raised lenticels
of medium size and number; leaf-buds short, obtuse, free.
Leaves folded upward, broadly oblanceolate, peach-like, one and
one-eighth inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long,
thin; upper surface light green, smooth, pubescent only on the
deeply grooved midrib; lower surface glabrous, pubescent on the
midrib; apex taper-pointed, base cuneate, margin finely and
doubly serrate, with small amber or reddish glands; petiole
nine-sixteenths inch long, sparingly hairy on one side, tinged
red, with from one to four small, reniform or globose glands
mostly on the stalk.
Blooming season early and short; flowers appearing with the
leaves, white; borne in dense clusters on the lateral buds
and spurs, in threes; pedicels one-quarter inch long, thick,
glabrous; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes
broad, obtuse, glandular-serrate, glabrous, erect; petals
broadly oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellowish;
filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than
the stamens.
Fruit early, season long; variable in size, large when the tree
is not overloaded, one and three-quarters inches in diameter,
roundish-conic, halves equal; cavity deep, abrupt, regular;
suture shallow; apex roundish; color dark red over a yellow
ground, mottled, with thick bloom; dots numerous, large,
russet, conspicuous; stem five-eighths inch long, glabrous,
parting readily from the fruit; skin thin, tough, sour,
separating from the pulp; flesh deep yellow, juicy, tender,
firm, sweet, aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters
inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish-oval, turgid, blunt
but sharp-tipped, roughish, with a slightly winged ventral
suture; dorsal suture acute.
CHABOT
[Illustration: CHABOT]
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 29. 1886. =2.= _Ibid._ 52, 99. 1889.
=3.= _Am. Gard._ =12=:501. 1891. =4.= _Ibid._ =13=:700. 1892.
=5.= _Rev. Hort._ 132, Pl. 537. 1892. =6.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=62=:20, 22, 28. 1894. =7.= _Ibid._ =106=:44, 48, 51, 60. 1896.
=8.= Rogers _Cat._ 9. 1896. =9.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =139=:38.
1897. =10.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 26. 1897. =11.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =175=:150. 1899. =12.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 134, 135 fig.
1901. =13.= _Can. Exp. Farm Bul._ =43=:37. 1903. =14.= _Ohio
Sta. Bul._ =162=:250, 254, 255, 256, 257. 1905. =15.= _Ga. Sta.
Bul._ =68=:12, 14, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. 1905.
Babcock 15. _Babcock_ ?15. Bailey 3, 4, 6, 7. _Bailey_ 9, 11,
12, 15. _Chase_ 9, 15. _Chabot_ 15. _Douglas_ 15. Furugiya
7, 15. _Furugiya_ 11, 12, 15. Hytankayo 14. _Hytankayo_ 15.
_Hon-smomo_ 15. _O-Hatankyo_ 11. Orient 6, 7. _Orient_ 14.
O-hattankio 15. Paragon 8. _Red Nagate_ of some 7. Uchi Beni of
some 11. _Yellow Japan_ 9, 11, 12.
When properly handled the fruits of Chabot are far the most attractive
of the many Triflora plums. They are large, beautifully molded and
handsomely mottled in shades of red over yellow with occasional splashes
of russet and a heavy but delicate bloom. To secure the best coloring,
the fruit must be picked before ripe and be matured in dark storage.
Early picking is necessary also because the season of ripening is very
long and the fruit drops badly if permitted to hang to the trees until
fully ripe. There should be at least three pickings for this variety.
Unfortunately, the quality of Chabot belies its appearance, being at
best not above the average. The fruits are firm and ship well and keep
rather better than those of any other plum of its species. The trees are
hardy and dependable in bearing but not as productive as could be wished.
The blossoms of Chabot open later than those of most other Trifloras,
enabling this sort occasionally to escape frosts which injure other
varieties of this species. The stamens are often short, undeveloped and
wholly or in part sterile. Because of its attractive fruit this variety
might well be grown more than it is for the markets.
Chabot was imported from Japan by a Mr. Chabot of Berkeley, California,
and was introduced to the trade by Luther Burbank in 1886. As with
Abundance, the nomenclature of Chabot is badly confused. Several names
that have been found to be synonymous with the former have also been
applied to the latter. J. L. Normand, Marksville, Louisiana, imported
trees from Japan, among which was a tree that was different from any
growing on his grounds. He named this variety after Bailey and introduced
it in 1891. Later this was found to be identical with Chabot. Furugiya,
another introduction by Normand, is undoubtedly Chabot. H. N. Starnes
of the Georgia Experiment Station, who has tested many of the Japanese
plums, published in Bulletin 68 of his station, the additional synonyms:
Chase, O-hattankio, Hytankayo, Douglas, Hon-smomo and Babcock. Orient,
introduced by Stark Brothers, Louisiana, Missouri, in 1893, is Chabot as
tested at the New York and Ohio experiment stations. Paragon, introduced
by the Rogers Nursery Company, Moorestown, New Jersey, has also proved to
be identical. In 1897 the American Pomological Society added this variety
to its fruit catalog list.
Tree large, vigorous, vasiform or upright-spreading,
open-topped, slow-growing, hardy, productive, susceptible to
attacks of shot-hole fungus; branches roughish, the fruit-spurs
numerous, dark ash-gray, with raised lenticels variable in
size; branchlets slender, with short intemodes, greenish-red
changing to dark chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with numerous,
conspicuous, rather large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small,
short, obtuse, somewhat appressed.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oblanceolate, peach-like, one
and one-quarter inches wide, three inches long, thin; upper
surface light green, smooth, with a shallow, grooved midrib;
lower surface pale green, glabrous except at the base of the
veins; apex acutely pointed, base cuneate, margin finely
serrate, with small, amber or dark red glands; petiole one-half
inch long, slender, slightly pubescent along the upper surface,
heavily tinged with red, glandless or with from one to six
small, globose or reniform, greenish-brown glands usually on
the stalk.