it by Burbank in his breeding work. The variety is at least three hundred
years old. It was known to Merlet, writing in the Seventeenth Century,
and has been mentioned in plum literature many times since. The plum is
remarkable because of the entire absence of a stone, the kernel lying
naked in a cavity much larger than itself. The variety is worthless
but presents opportunities for breeding purposes that should not be
overlooked. Judging from the fruit-characters as given below it belongs
to _Prunus insititia_. The Stoneless is supposed to have been introduced
into England from the Royal Gardens at Versailles by George London. It
was long sold as Kirke’s Stoneless, having been much advertised by Kirke,
a nurseryman at Brompton, England. It is described as follows:
Fruit small, oval, dark purple, with thick bloom; flesh
greenish-yellow, harsh and strongly acid at first but assuming
a more pleasant flavor as it shrivels upon the tree.
SUGAR
[Illustration: SUGAR]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 47. 1897-98. =2.= Burbank _Cat._ 5
fig. 1899. =3.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 124. 1901. =4.= _U. S. D. A.
Rpt._ 275, Pl. XXXVI fig. 2. 1903.
Sugar Prune 1, 4.
The introduction of Sugar to the Atlantic States was preceded by very
flattering accounts of it from the originator, Mr. Burbank, and from
Pacific Coast plum-growers. Possibly our expectations were too high;
for we have been greatly disappointed in this plum as compared with its
parent, Agen, as the two varieties grow at Geneva—it should be said at
once that neither grows nearly as well in New York as in California. The
fruits of Sugar on the Station grounds are not larger than those of the
Agen, while in California it is said to be twice or three times as large;
the flavor is not as pleasant and the flesh is fibrous in the offspring
and not so in the parent at Geneva, though in California the Sugar is
said to be of better quality than the Agen. As the two grow here, Sugar
is rather more attractive in appearance and ripens earlier, the latter
character a distinct advantage since Agen is very late in New York. The
trees of the two plums are much alike though those of Agen are larger
and more productive than those of Sugar as grown in New York. There are,
however, but two trees of the latter variety on the Station grounds and
these are young, set in 1899, so that too much importance must not be
attached to the comparison of the trees. Sugar is worth further trial in
New York under other conditions of soil and climate but it is extremely
doubtful whether it will surpass the Agen in this State.
This plum, a seedling of the well-known Agen, was introduced by its
originator, Burbank, in 1899. The California Experiment Station in
analyzing this plum found it to be richer in sugar than the Agen and
states that it is larger and more easily dried. Sugar has become of great
commercial importance in the California prune districts and has been
top-grafted on other plums and even on almonds to the extent of hundreds
of acres in that State and in Oregon. As yet it is only under trial in
New York.
Tree of medium size, usually vigorous, spreading, dense-topped,
hardy, productive; branches ash-gray, tinged red, smooth except
for the numerous, small, raised lenticels; branchlets slender,
with long internodes, green changing to brownish-red, dull,
sparingly pubescent throughout the season, with numerous,
inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, somewhat
pointed, strongly appressed.
Leaves folded backward, obovate or oval, two and one-half
inches wide, five inches long; upper surface dark green,
rugose, covered with numerous hairs, the midrib narrowly
grooved; lower surface pale green, overspread with thick
pubescence; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute,
margin serrate, with small dark glands; petiole nearly one
inch long, covered with thick pubescence, lightly tinged with
red, glandless or with from one to three small, globose,
greenish-yellow glands at the base of the leaf.
Flowers large, intermediate in time of bloom; calyx-tube green;
stamens longer than the pistil.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season;
small, ovate or oval, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow,
abrupt; suture shallow, often a line; apex roundish or
pointed; color dark reddish-purple changing to purplish-black,
covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, light russet,
inconspicuous; stem slender, long, pubescent, adhering; skin
thin, tender, separating readily; flesh golden-yellow, juicy,
coarse, fibrous, tender, sweet, mild; good to very good; stone
light colored, with a tinge of red, thin, of medium size,
ovate, flattened, with rough and pitted surfaces, blunt at
the base, acute at the apex; ventral suture rather narrow,
distinctly furrowed, slightly winged; dorsal suture with a
wide, deep groove.
SURPRISE
[Illustration: SURPRISE]
_Prunus hortulana mineri?_
=1.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._ =63=:61 fig. 30. 1897. =2.= _Ia. Hort.
Soc. Rpt._ 112. 1899. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 38. 1899. =4.=
_Wis. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 69. 1900. =5.= _Ia. Sta. Bul._ =46=:289.
1900. =6.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._ =87=:18. 1901. =7.= Waugh _Plum
Cult._ 175. 1901. =8.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 228. 1904. =9.=
_Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 426. 1905. =10.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._
=93=:39. 1905.
Surprise is one of the best of the native plums in the Station orchard.
The fruits are very attractive in appearance and while not of the
rich flavor of the Domesticas they are yet of pleasant flavor with an
abundance of juice which together make this a most refreshing fruit.
The fruits keep well and would probably ship well. The color is a
peculiar red which serves to identify the variety; on the whole the
fruits resemble the Americanas while the trees are rather more of the
Miner type. The variety is productive in New York and is so spoken of in
Wisconsin by Goff,[224] but in Iowa it is said not to bear abundantly.
If a native plum is wanted in New York, this variety is worthy a trial.
Surprise, according to the originator, Martin Penning of Sleepy Eye,
Brown County, Minnesota, is the best of a thousand or more seedlings
grown from pits of De Soto, Weaver and Miner sown in 1882. In 1889,
Penning introduced this plum and ten years later it was added to the
fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society. The parentage of
the variety is unknown but it has usually been thought that the botanical
characters indicate that it is a seedling of Miner. As the tree grows
here, (they came to the Station from Mr. Penning,) it appears to be a
hybrid of _Prunus americana_ and _Prunus hortulana mineri_, characters of
both species being evident.
Tree large, vigorous, upright, dense-topped, hardy, productive;
trunk roughish; branches smooth, zigzag, thorny, dark
ash-gray, with numerous, small lenticels; branchlets slender,
medium to long, with long internodes, green changing to dark
chestnut-red, with brownish-gray scarf-skin, glossy, glabrous,
with numerous, conspicuous, small, raised lenticels; leaf-buds
small, short, obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves falling early, folded upward, oval or ovate, two inches
wide, four and one-half inches long, thin; upper surface
light green, glabrous, smooth, with a grooved midrib; lower
surface pale green, lightly pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base
abrupt, margin often coarsely and doubly serrate, with amber
glands which are not persistent; petiole thirteen-sixteenths
inch long, slender, reddish, sparingly pubescent along one
side, glandless or with from one to five small, globose,
yellowish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing with the leaves, three-quarters inch across,
creamy-white, with a disagreeable odor; borne in clusters from
lateral buds, in threes or in fours; pedicels three-eighths
inch long, slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish,
campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, pubescent
on the inner surface, serrate and with reddish glands, erect;
petals roundish-ovate, entire, narrowly clawed; anthers
yellowish; filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous,
equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and three-eighths
inches by one and one-eighth inches in size, halves equal;
cavity shallow, flaring; suture very shallow, distinct; apex
roundish or depressed; color dark red, covered with thin bloom;
dots numerous, medium to large, russet, conspicuous, clustered
about the apex; stem one-half inch long, glabrous, adhering to
the fruit; skin thick, tough, clinging; flesh golden-yellow,
juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender, sweet, insipid; quality fair;
stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval,
flattened, pointed at the base and apex, with smooth surfaces.
TENNANT
[Illustration: TENNANT]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Bailey _Ann. Hort._ 133. 1893. =2.= _Oregon Sta. Bul._
=45=:32. 1897. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 40. 1899. =4.= _Can.
Exp. Farm Bul._ 2nd Ser. =3=:57. 1900. =5.= Waugh _Plum Cult._
124. 1901. =6.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 326. 1903.
Tennant Prune 1. Tenant Prune 4.
It is surprising that a variety of so much merit, especially of so
great beauty, as Tennant, should not have been more widely tried in New
York. In the survey of plum culture in this State in the preparation of
the text for _The Plums of New York_, it could not be learned that the
Tennant had been tried in more than four or five places. In size and
beauty of form and coloring, all well shown in the illustration, Tennant
has few superiors in the collection of plums growing at this Station.
While it is not sufficiently high in quality to be called a first-rate
dessert fruit it is more palatable than most of the purple plums. It
ripens at a good time of the year, several days before the Italian Prune,
and should, from the nature of its skin and the firmness of its flesh,
both ship and keep well. A fault of the fruit as it grows here, a fault
not ascribed to it elsewhere, is that it shrivels soon after ripening.
Our trees are large, vigorous, healthy, hardy and productive—almost ideal
plum-trees. This variety should be very generally tried in commercial
plantations in New York and may well be planted in home collections for a
culinary fruit at least. On the Pacific Coast it is cured for prunes, its
meaty flesh fitting it very well for this purpose.
This is another promising plum from the Pacific Northwest. Tennant
originated with Rev. John Tennant of Ferndale, Washington, and was
introduced in 1893 by McGill and McDonald, Salem, Oregon. The variety is
fairly well known in the region of its origin but is practically unknown
in New York. It was listed in the American Pomological Society catalog in
1897 as successful in the Pacific Northwest.
Tree large, vigorous, round-topped, open, hardy, productive;
trunk slightly roughened; branches stocky, smooth, with
lenticels of medium number and size; branchlets thick, long,
with long internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-drab,
with green patches and considerable scarf-skin, somewhat
glossy, sparingly pubescent throughout the season, with
small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, appressed;
leaf-scars prominent.
Leaves folded backward, oval or obovate, one and three-quarters
inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thick, stiff;
upper surface dark green, rugose, sparingly hairy, with a
grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, with thick
pubescence; apex abruptly pointed to acute, base acute, margin
crenate, eglandular or with small, brown glands; petiole
five-eighths inch long, thick, tinged red along one side,
hairy, glandless or with one or two rather large, globose,
brownish glands variable in position.
Blooming season early to medium, short; flowers appearing after
the leaves, one inch or more across, white, the buds tinged
yellow; borne on lateral spurs; pedicels one-half inch long,
thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, often with a
swelling around the base, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes
broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, with thick, marginal
hairs, erect; petals roundish-oval, entire, tapering to short,
broad claws; anthers large, yellow; filaments five-sixteenths
inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, equal to the stamens
in length; stigma large.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one
and three-quarters inches by one and five-eighths inches in
size, roundish-truncate or roundish-oblong, with irregular
surface which is somewhat ridged, halves equal; cavity narrow,
abrupt, slightly compressed; suture variable in depth,
distinct; apex deeply depressed; color dark reddish-purple,
overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, variable in size,
whitish, conspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem thick,
three-eighths inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the
fruit; skin tough, adhering slightly to the pulp; flesh dark
golden-yellow, somewhat dry, coarse, tough, firm, sweet, mild
but pleasant; of good quality; stone clinging, seven-eighths
inch by five-eighths inch in size, irregular-oval, flattened,
obliquely necked, blunt at the apex, with deeply pitted
surfaces, roughish; ventral suture prominent, heavily furrowed,
not winged; dorsal suture usually with a narrow, shallow groove.
TRAGEDY
[Illustration: TRAGEDY]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 236, Pl. II fig. 5, 237. 1890. =2.=
_Ibid._ 109 fig. 8. 1891. =3.= Wickson _Cal. Fruits_ 358. 1891.
=4.= _N. Mex. Sta. Bul._ =27=:125. 1898. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 40. 1899. =6.= Waugh _Plum. Cult._ 124. 1901.
Tragedy Prune 1, 3, 4.
Tragedy is another western plum which, like the Tennant, has not been
well tested in the East. It is an older plum than the Tennant and
somewhat better known in New York but still the reports of it are not
sufficient in number or of great enough range to enable a fair opinion
to be given as to its merits. As the variety grows at Geneva the fruits
are very attractive in appearance—above medium size, a dark, rich
purple color, and having the full, rounded form much liked by consumers
in a dessert plum. The flesh is juicy, tender and sweet so that the
quality may be called good; possibly the flesh is a little too soft for
long shipping or long keeping as it grows here, though in one of the
California references it is spoken of as “valuable for eastern shipment.”
The trees are very satisfactory except that in New York they are not
quite as reliable in bearing as could be wished. A fault, as the variety
grows here and which may be local, is that a large proportion of the pits
are cracked and all are soft and granular. The tree is reported by some
as “scale proof” but unfortunately this statement can neither be denied
nor affirmed. A plum with the good qualities possessed by Tragedy, should
be better known in New York.
The following history is contributed by Professor E. J. Wickson,
Berkeley, California. Tragedy originated as a chance seedling on the
farm of O. R. Runyon, near Courtland, Sacramento County, California,
probably in the late seventies. It was first offered to the trade in
dormant buds by W. R. Strong and Company of Sacramento in 1887. Since
the German Prune and Duane Purple grew on the place of its origin and as
it shows characters of both, it has been noted as a probable cross of
these varieties. The name Tragedy is understood to have been given to
the fruit by Mr. Runyon because the plum was noted to be desirable on or
about a day upon which a certain event held to be tragical occurred in
the neighborhood. In 1899, the American Pomological Society considered
Tragedy worthy a place in its list of fruits.
Tree large, vigorous, round-topped, hardy, variable in
productiveness; branches ash-gray, usually smooth, with raised
lenticels of various sizes; branchlets twiggy, thick, medium
to short, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark
brownish-drab, covered with thick pubescence, with obscure,
small lenticels; leaf-buds intermediate in size and length,
obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves folded backward, oval or obovate, one and three-quarters
inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long; upper
surface dark green, glabrous except for the few hairs on the
deeply and narrowly grooved midrib; lower surface pubescent;
apex acute or obtuse, base acute; petiole five-eighths inch
long, thick, pubescent, faintly tinged red, glandless or with
one or two small, globose, greenish-brown glands usually at the
base of the leaf.
Blooming season early, short; flowers appearing with the
leaves, seven-eighths inch across, white; borne on lateral
buds, usually in pairs; pedicels one-half inch long, thick,
pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, with roughened surface,
campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, lightly pubescent,
serrate, with many glands and marginal hairs, reflexed; petals
broadly oval, crenate, short-clawed; anthers bright yellow;
filaments nearly five-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent at
the base, much longer than the stamens.
Fruit early, season short; one and five-eighths inches by
one and three-eighths inches in size, oval, swollen on the
suture side, compressed, halves unequal; cavity narrow,
abrupt, regular; suture shallow, often an indistinct line;
apex roundish; color dark purplish-black, covered with thick
bloom; dots numerous, variable in size, russet, inconspicuous;
stem five-eighths inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the
fruit; skin of medium thickness and toughness, somewhat sour,
separating readily; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, tender,
sweet, mild; good; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths
inch in size, irregular-oval, flattened, obliquely necked;
apex acute; surfaces pitted, roughish; ventral suture narrow,
prominent, not winged; dorsal suture narrowly and deeply
grooved.
TRANSPARENT
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 395. 1857. =2.= _Flor. & Pom._
56, Col. Pl. fig. 1862. =3.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 383. 1866. =4.=
Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 950. 1869. =5.= _Jour. Hort._ N. S.
=17=:258. 1869. =6.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 91. 1869. =7.= _Am.
Pom. Soc. Cat._ 24. 1871. =8.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No. 25. 1871.
=9.= Mas _Pom. Gen._ =2=:31, fig. 16. 1873. =10.= _Cat. Cong.
Pom. France_ 365. 1887. =11.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 428. 1889.
=12.= _Guide Prat._ 154, 364. 1895. =13.= Nicholson _Dict.
Gard._ =3=:166. =14.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 124. 1901. =15.= _Soc.
Nat. Hort. France Pom._ 554 fig. 1904.
_Diaphane_ 4, 12. _Diaphane Lafay_ 4. _Durchscheinende
Reineclaude_ 9, 12. Durchscheinende Reine-Claude 11. _Prune
Diaphane_ 9. _Prune Diaphane Laffay_ 4, 11. _Reine-Claude
De Guigne_ 9. Reine-Claude Diaphane 1, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15.
_Reine-Claude Diaphane_ 2, 3, 4, 5, 11. _Reine-Claude
Transparente_ 9, 11, 12, 15. _Reine-Claude Transparent_ 4.
Transparent Green Gage 6. Transparent Gage 3, 4, 7, 8, 13.
_Transparent Gage_ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15. Transparent Gage
Plum 2, 5.
In Europe Transparent is considered one of the best of all dessert plums
but either it does not do as well in America or the American bred plums
of the Reine Claude group, to which this variety belongs, are much better
on this continent than in the Old World. At any rate in our soil and
climate there are a dozen or more Reine Claude plums as good or better
in quality than Transparent and much superior in other characters. It
is, however, worth planting by the connoisseur for its quality and
because of the transparency of skin—in the latter respect it is unique
among Domestica plums. The flower-buds of this variety have a remarkable
tendency to produce leaves in the place of floral organs.
Transparent is an old French variety. M. Lafay, a rose-grower at
Bellevue, near Paris, raised it from the seed of the Reine Claude and
named it Reine Claude Diaphane. It was grown previous to 1836, for,
during this year, Thomas Rivers of England, while visiting M. Lafay, was
told of its origin. In 1871, the American Pomological Society listed
Transparent in its catalog as worthy of culture. The color of this
variety leads to the suspicion that Reine Claude is not the only parent.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy,
productive; branches slender, ash-gray, roughish towards
the trunk, with small lenticels; branchlets above medium in
thickness, short, with internodes of average length, green
changing to brownish-red often retaining some green, dull,
pubescent, with small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and
length, conical, somewhat appressed.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, two and one-half inches
wide, five inches long, above average thickness; upper surface
rugose, nearly glabrous, with a grooved midrib; lower surface
pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin
often doubly serrate or crenate, with small, dark glands;
petiole seven-eighths inch long, thick, pubescent, faintly
tinged red, glandless or with from one to four rather large,
globose or oval, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing after the
leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white; borne in
scattering clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in
pairs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, thick, pubescent,
greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes
obtuse, lightly pubescent, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals
obovate, crenate, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers
yellow with a tinge of red; filaments three-eighths inch long;
pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens, often in pairs.
Fruit late, intermediate in length of ripening season; one
and three-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size,
oblate, compressed; halves equal; cavity wide, flaring; suture
a line; apex flattened or depressed; color red over a dark
amber-yellow ground, mottled, covered with thin bloom; dots
numerous, grayish or light russet, conspicuous, decreasing in
number but increasing in size towards the cavity; stem thick,
three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the
fruit; skin thin, adhering but slightly; flesh golden-yellow,
juicy, fibrous, tender, very sweet, aromatic, pleasant; very
good to best; stone clinging, five-eighths inch by one-half
inch in size, roundish-oval, turgid, blunt at the base and
apex, with slightly pitted surfaces; ventral suture, wide,
blunt, faintly grooved; dorsal suture with a deep groove of
medium width.
UNGARISH
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Ia. Agr. Col. Bul._ 50, 51. 1886. =2.= _Ia. Hort. Soc.
Rpt._ 86. 1890. =3.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =118=:53. 1895. =4.=
_Kan. Sta. Bul._ =101=:117, 119, 120 fig. 1901. =5.= Waugh
_Plum Cult._ 109. 1901. =6.= _Can. Exp. Farms Rpt._ 102. 1902.
=7.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 326. 1903. =8.= _Can. Exp.
Farms Rpt._ 433. 1905.
Hungarian 3, ?6. _Hungarian Prune_ 3. Hungarian Prune 4.
Hungary 1. Ungarische 8. Ungarish Prune 2, 7. _Quetsche de
Hongrie_ 1. _Zwetsche Ungarische_ 1.
Budd’s Ungarish as grown at the New York State Experiment Station is
nearly identical with the Italian Prune. The only differences to be
detected are that the Italian Prune is a trifle smaller, a little more
firm, not as broad and not quite as sweet as the Ungarish. The pit of the
latter is usually tinged with red, while that of the former is rarely
so colored. If the Ungarish prove as productive as the Italian Prune it
may be more desirable because of its larger size. In 1883 Professor J.
L. Budd of the Iowa Experiment Station imported trees under the name
Quetsche de Hongrie or Zwetsche Ungarische from C. H. Wagner of Riga,
Russia and from Wilhelm Wohler of Wilna, Russia. Budd disseminated the
variety as Hungary, a name soon changed to Hungarian Prune and later to
Ungarish. This is not to be confused with the true Hungarian so well
known in Europe as the Quetsche de Hongrie.
UTAH
_Prunus besseyi_ × _Prunus watsoni_
=1.= Dieck in Dippel _Laubholzkunde_ =3=:634. 1893. =2.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul._ =70=:262, Pl. II fig. 3. 1894. =3.= _Tex.
Sta. Bul._ =32=:490. 1894. =4.= _Vt. Sta. Bul._ =67=:21. 1898.
=5.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 225. 1901.
_Black Utah Hybrid_ 2, 4, 5. Utah Hybrid 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
This interesting natural hybrid was grown by J. E. Johnson at Wood River,
Nebraska, some time previous to 1870. Mr. Johnson planted seed of the
native dwarf cherry which had grown near Sand plums and which supposedly
had been pollinized by the plums. The resulting plants proved to be
intermediates between the cherry and the plum and are now generally
thought to be natural hybrids. From these seedlings, one was selected and
propagated. Shortly afterwards Mr. Johnson moved to Utah taking his new
hybrid with him and from there distributed it as Utah. In 1893 a German
botanist, Dieck (References, 1), described this hybrid and gave it the
specific name _Prunus utahensis_. The plant has no commercial value. It
is described as follows:
Tree a dwarfish tree-like bush three or four feet in height;
branches and branchlets zigzag after the habit of _Prunus
watsoni_: leaves small, narrow-ovate, pointed at the ends;
margins crenulate, glandless, sometimes small glands on the
petioles; fruit early, small, round, dark mahogany-red, covered
with bloom; skin very bitter; flesh melting; pleasant flavor;
quality poor; stone small, round like that of a cherry.
VICTORIA
[Illustration: VICTORIA]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 153. 1831. =2.= Downing _Fr. Trees
Am._ 315. 1845. =3.= _Ann. Pom. Belge_ 45, Pl. 1856. =4.=
Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 516. 1859. =5.= _Cultivator_ =8=:26 fig.
1860. =6.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 88. 1862. =7.= Thomas _Am.
Fruit Cult._ 349 fig. 379. 1867. =8.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._
948. 1869. =9.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No. 13. 1871. =10.= _Mas Le
Verger_ =6=:23, fig. 12. 1866-73. =11.= Oberdieck _Deut. Obst.
Sort._ 419. 1881. =12.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 728. 1884. =13.=
Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 438. 1889. =14.= Gaucher _Pom. Prak. Obst._
No. 98 fig. 1894. =15.= _Guide Prat._ 159, 367. 1895. =16.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul_. =131=:193. 1897. =17.= _Jour. Roy._ _Hort.
Soc._ =21=:222. 1897. =18.= _Mich. Sta._ _Bul_. =169=:243, 248.
1899. 19. _Garden_ =57=:267. 1900. =20.= _Waugh Plum Cult._
122, 123 fig. 1901.
_Alderton_ 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15. _Dauphin_ 8, 13.
_Denyer’s Victoria_ ?2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15. Denyer’s
Victoria 4. _Dolphin_ 8, 13. _Imperial de Sharp_ 8, 13.
Königin Victoria 11, 13, 15. _Königin Victoria_ 9, 14, 15. La
Victorine 1. Prune Reine Victoria 3. _Queen Victoria_ ?2, 3,
13, 14, 15. Queen Victoria 9. _Reine Victoria_ 9, 10, 13, 14,
of some 15. _Royal Dauphine_ 8, 13. Sharp 20. Sharp’s Emperor
2, 8. _Sharp’s Emperor_ 3, 9, 10, 12, 13, by error 15, 20.
_Sharpe’s Emperor_, 17 incor. Victoria-Pflaume 14. _Sharp’s
Kaiserpflaume_ 13. _Victoria_ 8, 9, 13, 14, 20. _Victoria’s
Kaiserzwetsche_ 14, 15.
For some reason Victoria, long known in America, has never attained
great popularity in this country. It is a large plum attaining nearly
the size of Pond, though the color-plate does not so show it, and has
much the same color as the plum with which we have just compared it.
Here resemblances cease for Victoria is not the same shape as Pond,
is a little better in quality, is earlier and quite different in
tree-characters. It would seem that this would make a good market plum as
it is firm enough in flesh to ship well, as grown here keeps remarkably
well, is better in quality than the average market plum and is handsome,
though Americans seem to care little for red plums, preferring the yellow
sorts and still more the purple kinds. Unfortunately, Victoria does not
always color well in our climate. The trees of this variety at this
Station, while productive, are not large nor robust, and the foliage is
a little too susceptible to fungi. These defects of the tree may account
for the lack of popularity of the variety in New York though even if they
are to be found in all localities, which is probably not the case, this
plum is still worth growing to some extent for home or market.
The origin of this plum and even its right to the name under which it
is discussed here are matters of controversy. The London Horticultural
Society in 1831 mentioned La Victorine in its catalog but since no
description was given it cannot be identified as Victoria. Sharp’s
Emperor which has been confused with this variety, was described in
the same publication. These two varieties were considered as identical
by Charles Downing, Hogg, Mas and others; while Royer[225] who tested
Sharp’s Emperor, obtained from Liegel, thought it to be distinct, as did
Thomas, the _Guide Pratique_ and Pearson of England. Hogg in describing
the Victoria says, “This is a Sussex plum, and was discovered in a
garden at Alderton in that county. It became known as Sharp’s Emperor,
and was ultimately sold by a nurseryman named Denyer, in the year 1844 at
Brixton, near London, at a high price as a new variety under the name of
Denyer’s Victoria.” Pearson in the _Journal of the Royal Horticultural
Society_ for 1897 says the reason that Hogg and other authorities had
called these varieties identical is that they had not seen the true
variety. At this Station we have not seen Sharp’s Emperor but judging
from the descriptions it is distinct though very similar. The American
Pomological Society placed Victoria on its fruit list in 1862 but in
1871, Sharp’s Emperor was substituted as the correct name with Victoria
as a synonym. This change was probably made to comply with Downing’s
nomenclature of 1869. A review of the whole controversy cannot but lead
to the conclusion that Victoria is the correct name and it appears also
to be in most common use.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, hardy,
productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with few large
lenticels; branchlets thick, short, stout, with short
internodes, greenish changing to dark brownish-drab, dull, with
thick pubescence, with few inconspicuous, small lenticels;
leaf-buds large, long, conical or pointed, free.
Leaves folded backward, obovate, two and three-eighths inches
wide, five inches long, thick, stiff; upper surface dark green,
rugose, with a narrow groove on the midrib, sparingly hairy;
lower surface medium green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly
pointed, base cuneate, margin serrate or crenate, eglandular
or with small dark glands; petiole one inch long, covered with
thick pubescence, tinged red on one side, glandless or with
from one to three globose or reniform, yellow glands usually on
the stalk.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing with
the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white, the
buds tinged yellow; borne in clusters on lateral buds and
spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels nearly three-eighths
inch long, thick, heavily pubescent; calyx-tube green,
campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes medium to narrow, obtuse,
glandular-serrate, thickly pubescent on both surfaces,
reflexed; petals roundish-obovate, entire or occasionally
notched, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellow;
filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than
the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period of medium length; one and
seven-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size,
long-oval, oblong, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow,
narrow, flaring; suture variable in depth, prominent; apex
roundish or depressed; color dark red, mottled before full
maturity, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, russet,
conspicuous; stem thick, three-quarters inch long, very
pubescent, adhering strongly to the fruit; skin thin, tender,
adhering but slightly; flesh light yellow, juicy, coarse, firm,
sweet, mild but pleasant; good; stone free, one and one-eighth
inches by three-eighths inch in size, broad-oval, strongly
flattened, deeply pitted, roughish, blunt at the base and apex;
ventral suture narrow, distinctly winged; dorsal suture widely
and deeply grooved.
VIOLET DIAPER
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 576, 578. 1629. =2.= Langley
_Pomona_ 93, Pl. XXIII fig. II. 1729. =3.= Duhamel _Trait.
Arb. Fr._ =2=:101, Pl. XVII fig. 1768. =4.= Prince _Pom. Man._
=2=:70, 92. 1832. =5.= Elliott _Fr. Book_ 425. 1854. =6.= Koch
_Deut. Obst._ 572. 1876. =7.= _Le Bon Jard._ 339. 1882. =8.=
Hogg _Fruit Man._ 690. 1884. =9.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 452.
1889. =10.= _Guide Prat._ 157, 355. 1895.
Black Diapred 1. _Blaue Diaprée_ 9, 10. _Blaue Herzformige
Pflaume_ 9, 10. _Buntfarbige Violette Pflaume_ 9, 10. _Cheston_
1, 9, 10. Cheston 4, 5, 8. _Cheston Matchless_ 5. Cheston’s
Plumb 2. Dennie 1. Diaprée noire 7. _Die Violette Diaprée_ 10.
Diaprée Violette 3, 10. _Diaprée Violette_ 4, 8, 9. Diapre
Violet 4. Friars 1. Friars 8. Friar’s Plum 9. Matchless 4, 5,
9, 10. Purple Diaper 6. _Violet Diaper_ 5, 9. Violette Diaprée
9. _Violette Violen Pflaume_ 9, 10. _Veilchen Pflaume_ 9, 10.
Violet Diaper was cultivated at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century
and has maintained itself in Europe until the present time although never
attaining nor deserving the popularity of the Red Diaper. Matchless,
cited as a synonym, is manifestly incorrect as the true Matchless is a
yellow plum; but since it has been used so long and by so many writers as
a synonym, it seems best to mention it as such. This plum is not grown in
America. It is described as follows:
Fruit early; of medium size, oval; suture faint; cavity almost
lacking; skin free; dark purple, covered with thick bloom;
flesh yellow, firm, sweet; good; freestone.
VORONESH
[Illustration: VORONESH]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 76. 1883. =2.= _Ibid._ 61. 1887. =3.=
_Am. Gard._ =11=:625 fig. 1. 1890. =4.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 116.
1901. =5.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 327, 329. 1903.
Moldavka 1, 2, 3, 4. Voronesh Yellow 3, 5. Yellow Moldavka 5.
Yellow Voronesh 2.
Voronesh is a Russian sort supposed to be ironclad as to cold. It is
perfectly hardy at Geneva, the trees are also very productive and the
fruits are attractive enough in size and color to meet market demands but
the flavor is so insipid as to make the plum unfit for dessert and hardly
fit for kitchen use. It is given the honor of a color-plate because it is
a somewhat distinct type. In 1881 Professor J. L. Budd secured from J.
E. Fisher, Voronesh, Russia, a variety which he introduced as Voronesh
Yellow. At the same time he imported a variety from Fisher under the name
Moldavka which proved to be identical with his Voronesh Yellow, though
Budd held that while they were very similar the Moldavka was more oval
than Voronesh.
Tree of medium size, round-topped, productive; leaves drooping,
folded backward, narrow-obovate, two and one-quarter inches
wide, four and one-half inches long, thick; margin doubly
serrate, with small, yellowish glands; petiole one-half inch
long, tinged red, pubescent, sometimes with two globose,
yellowish-red glands usually on the stalk near the base of the
leaf; blooming season early, short; flowers appearing after the
leaves, fully one and one-eighth inches across, dull white;
borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and seven-eighths
inches by one and one-half inches in size, ovate, necked,
slightly enlarged on the suture side, dark lemon-yellow,
with thin bloom; dots very numerous, of medium size, white,
conspicuous; stem adhering strongly to the fruit; skin tough,
sour; flesh dark amber-yellow, very tender, sweet, mild; poor;
stone free, one and three-eighths inches by five-eighths inch
in size, long-oval, flattened, somewhat necked, acute at the
apex, the surfaces smooth or partially honeycombed; ventral
suture prominent.
WALES
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Gard. Chron._ =5=:837. 1845. =2.= _Mag. Hort._ =12=:340.
1846. =3.= McIntosh _Bk. Gard._ 529. 1855. =4.= Downing _Fr.
Trees Am._ 392. 1857. =5.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 515. 1859.
=6.= _Ann. Pom. Belge_ 7, Pl. 1859. =7.= Mas _Pom. Gen._
=2=:119, fig. 60. 1873. =8.= _Flor. & Pom._ 253, Pl. 1875. =9.=
_W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ =21=:20. 1876. =10.= Hogg _Fruit
Man._ 718. 1884. =11.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 443. 1889. =12.=
_Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt._ 96, 120. 1896. =13.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =131=:190. 1897. =14.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 26. 1897.
=15.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._ =113=:160. 1899. 16. Waugh _Plum Cult._
125. 1901.
Chapman’s Prince of Wales, 3, 5. _Chapman’s Prince of Wales_ 4,
10, 11. Chapman’s Prince of Wales’ Plum 1. Prince Albert? 11.
Prince De Galles 7. _Prince De Galles_ 6, 11. Prince of Wales
2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15. _Prince of Wales_ 7, 11, 14, 16.
Prinz Von Wales 11. Prune Prince of Whales 6.
Wales, more commonly known as the Prince of Wales, seems to have much
merit yet it has long been grown in America, probably three-quarters of
a century, without attaining distinction with fruit-growers. In recent
years it has been favorably commented upon in a number of publications
and seems to be better known and more grown than formerly. Whether this
tardily-given recognition is not too late is a question. So many good
plums have been introduced both at home and abroad in the last few
decades that a sort dating back nearly a century must be meritorious,
indeed, to stand the competition. As Wales grows in New York, it is
rather too poor in quality to recommend it for a home variety and the
plums are too small, as they generally grow, for a good commercial fruit.
The trees are enormously productive and are very satisfactory in other
characters as well. In a bulletin from the Cornell Station (References,
13) this variety is said to have “much to commend it for general favor:”
while in Ohio (References, 15) it is thought that Wales “ought to become
popular.”
Wales, a seedling of Orleans, was raised by a Mr. Chapman, Brentford,
Middlesex, England, in 1830. It was exhibited before the London
Horticultural Society in 1845 where it was awarded a prize. The following
year, Hovey, the American pomologist, (References, 2) described the
variety but the date of the first importation to this country is unknown.
It was not until 1897 that the variety was sufficiently known to be
placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree large, vigorous, slightly vasiform, open-topped, hardy,
very productive; branches ash-gray, smooth except for the
numerous, small, slightly raised lenticels, often marked
by concentric rings; branchlets of medium thickness and
length, with long internodes, green changing to brownish-red,
dull, thinly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small
lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, conical or pointed;
leaf-scars prominent.
Leaves folded upward, roundish-ovate or oval, two and one-half
inches wide, three and one-half inches long; upper surface
dark green, somewhat rugose, covered with numerous hairs;
lower surface pale green, thickly pubescent; apex and base
abrupt, margin crenate, eglandular or with small dark glands;
petiole one-half inch long, pubescent, tinged red, glandless or
with from one to three small, globose, yellowish-brown glands
usually at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season short; flowers one inch across, white,
with a yellow tinge; usually borne in pairs; pedicels
eleven-sixteenths inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish;
calyx-tube green, campanulate, lightly pubescent toward the
base; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces,
glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, erect; petals
broadly oval, crenate, tapering to short, blunt claws;
filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous except on
the ovary, longer than the stamens; stigma large.
Fruit late, season short; one and five-eighths inches by one
and one-half inches in size, roundish-oval, halves equal;
cavity narrow, abrupt; suture a line; apex roundish; color
reddish-purple, overspread with thick bloom; dots few, large,
often tinged red, conspicuous; stem thick, one-half inch long,
pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin tough, separating
readily; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, tender, sweet, mild; good;
stone semi-free or free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths
inch in size, oval, turgid, blunt at the base and apex, with
slightly pitted surfaces; ventral suture narrow, often acute or
with a slight wing; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
WANGENHEIM
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= _Cultivator_ =8=:26 fig. 1860. =2.= Mas _Le Verger_
=6=:157, fig. 79. 1866-73. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ XXIV.
1871. =4.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 453. 1889. =5.= _Guide Prat._
159, 367. 1895. =6.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 125. 1901.
_Die Wangenheim_ 4. _De Wangenheim_ 5. _Prune de Wangenheim_ 4.
_Prune Wangenheim Hâtive_ 4. _Quetsche Précoce de Wangenheim_
2, 4, 5. _Von Wangenheim Pflaume_ 2, 4, 5. _Wangenheims
Frühzwetsche_ 2, 5. Wangenheims Früh Zwetsche 4. _Wangenheim
Hâtive_ 4.
This variety, very well known and highly esteemed in Germany, has been
grown to some extent in America both on the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts
and in neither region has it proved equal to standard plums. According to
Dittrich, Wangenheim originated at Beinheim, a small place near Gotha,
Saxe-Cobourg, Germany.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, productive; trunk
rough; branches rough, stocky; branchlets nearly glabrous;
leaves folded upward, slightly rugose; margin finely serrate,
with small glands; petiole tinged red, pubescent, with from one
to three small glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Fruit mid-season; one and one-quarter inches by one and
one-eighth inches in size, ovate, purplish-red, covered with
thin bloom, yellowish, rather dry, firm, sweet, mild; of good
quality; stone very free, three-quarters inch by one-half
inch in size, irregular-oval, flattened, with faintly pitted
surfaces; ventral suture distinctly winged; dorsal suture with
a narrow, shallow groove.
WASHINGTON
[Illustration: WASHINGTON]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Prince _Treat. Hort._ 24. 1828. =2.= _Pom. Mag._ =1=:16,
Pl. 1828. =3.= _Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 154. 1831. =4.= Prince
_Pom. Man._ =2=:53. 1832. =5.= Floy-Lindley _Guide Orch. Gard._
298, 383, 418. 1846. =6.= Cole _Am. Fr. Book_ 210. 1849. =7.=
Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 326 fig., 327. 1849. =8.= Hovey _Fr.
Am._ =1=:87, Col. Pl. 1851. =9.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 54. 1852.
=10.= Elliott _Fr. Book_ 415. 1854. =11.= _Ann. Pom. Belge_
=4=:23, Pl. 1856. =12.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 520. 1859. =13.=
Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 951. 1869. =14.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No.
24. 1871. =15.= Mas _Le Verger_ =6=:59. 1866-73. =16.= Hogg
_Fruit Man._ 729. 1884. =17.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 453. 1889.
=18.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =103=:32, 33, fig. 1894. =19.= _Cornell
Sta. Bul._ =131=:193. 1897. =20.= _Va. Sta. Bul._ =134=:44.
1902. =21.= _Can. Exp. Farm Bul._ =43=:36. 1903.
_Anglesio_ 17. _Bolmar_ 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17.
_Bolmar’s Washington_ 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17. Bolmar’s
Washington 5. _Bolmer_ 1, 4, 13, 17. _Bolmer’s Washington_
1, 4, 13. _Bolmore’s Washington_ 4. _Double Imperial Gage_
1, 4. _Franklin_ 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17.
_Imperial Gage_ (of Albany) 4. _Irving’s Bolmar_ 10, 13, 16,
17. _Irving’s Bolmer_ 14. _Jackson_ 11, 13, 14, 17. _Louis
Philippe_ 14. _Louis Philipp_ 17. _New Washington_ 3, 4, 5,
8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17. _Parker’s Mammoth_ 10, 13, 16, 17.
_Philippe_ 1, 11, 13, 14, 17. Prune Washington Jaune 11.
_Superior Gage_ 1, 4, 8. _Superior Green Gage_ 4, 8. The
Washington Plum 2, 8. _Washington_ 5, 8. _Washington Bolmar_ 8.
_Washington Gage_ 4. _Washington Jaune_ 13, 14, 17. _Washington
Mammot_ 14, 17. _Washington Yellow_ 17.
Washington holds high rank among the Reine Claude varieties, plums
unsurpassed for dessert purposes. The fruits are large in size for one
of this group; handsome in form and color (in the latter respect the
color-plate does not do the variety justice); abundant in juice yet firm
and meaty enough in flesh to keep and ship well; fine in flavor though
not quite equalling some others of its group in this character. The trees
are large, hardy, vigorous and healthy, remarkable for their broad,
glossy, abundant leaves, bear bountiful crops annually and at a favorable
period of maturity. Washington thus has a combination of characters
which few of its group, with which only it must be compared, possess.
The variety, however, is not without defects; the fruits are subject to
brown-rot, so much so that its value as a commercial variety is greatly
lessened; the quality varies greatly in different locations and even in
different years,—the latter very noticeable on the Station grounds; the
trees are slow in coming in bearing and the crops are small for some
years after fruiting begins. From the above considerations it may be
seen that while this variety is almost always worth planting in a home
collection, the location for it as a commercial fruit needs to be chosen
with some care.
There are two accounts of the origin of this variety. William Prince
gives its history as follows (References, 1): “It has always been
the custom at the establishment of the author, at Flushing, to plant
annually the seeds of the finest fruits, for the purpose of originating
new varieties; and, about the year 1790, his father planted the pits of
twenty-five quarts of the Green Gage plum; these produced trees yielding
fruit of every colour; and the White Gage, Red Gage, and Prince’s Gage,
now so well known, form part of the progeny of those plums; and there
seems strong presumptive evidence to suppose that the Washington Plum was
one of the same collection.” Michael Floy gives a different history of
the Washington (References, 5). He states that he received the variety in
1818 from a Mr. Bolmar of New York who in turn had purchased his trees
from a market woman in 1814. The purchased trees were produced as suckers
from the roots of a Reine Claude tree which had been killed below the
graft by lightning on the Delancey farm, now the Bowery, in New York
City. In 1819, a few of the trees, budded the previous year by Floy, were
sent to England. The American Pomological Society added the Washington to
its fruit catalog list in 1852. Taking in consideration the evidence of
other writers and further facts offered in other accounts by the Princes,
father and son, it seems almost certain that the first history is correct
and that Bolmar’s trees had their origin in the Prince nursery.
Tree large, vigorous, round and open-topped, hardy, very
productive; branches dark ash-gray, rough becoming shaggy on
the trunk, with small lenticels; branchlets below medium in
thickness and length, with long internodes, green changing
to brownish-red, thinly pubescent, with small lenticels of
average number; leaf-buds of medium size and length, pointed,
free.
Leaves flattened, oval, two and one-half inches wide, four and
one-quarter inches long, leathery, somewhat velvety; upper
surface dark green, lightly pubescent, with a shallow groove
on the midrib; lower surface medium green, thickly pubescent;
apex abruptly pointed or acute, base abrupt; margin serrate,
eglandular; petiole five-eighths inch long, green, pubescent,
glandless or with one or two smallish, globose, greenish-yellow
glands at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, one and five-sixteenths inches
across, white, with yellow near the apex; borne on lateral buds
and spurs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, thick, covered
with fine pubescence, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate,
pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both
surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, erect;
petals broad-ovate or oval, crenate, tapering into short, broad
claws; anthers yellow; filaments three-eighths inch long;
pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season;
one and three-quarters inches by one and five-eighths inches
in size, roundish-oval, compressed, halves equal; cavity
shallow, narrow, flaring; suture shallow; apex roundish;
color greenish-yellow or light yellow, with green stripes and
splashes, occasionally with a faint blush on the sunny side,
covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, white, inconspicuous,
clustered about the apex; stem one-half inch long, covered
with thick pubescence, adhering strongly to the fruit; skin
thin, slightly sour, separating readily; flesh greenish-yellow,
juicy, firm but tender, sweet, mild, pleasant flavor; good to
very good; stone free, not filling the cavity, one inch by
three-quarters inch in size, oval, turgid, roughened, somewhat
blunt at the base and apex; ventral suture wide, marked by deep
furrows, with a distinct but short wing; dorsal suture widely
and deeply grooved.
WAYLAND
[Illustration: WAYLAND]
_Prunus hortulana_
=1.= _U. S. D. A. Rpt._ 573, Pl. 5 fig. 2. 1888. =2.= _Am.
Gard._ =10=:175 fig., 243. 1889. =3.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=38=:51, 87. 1892. =4.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._ =63=:24, 62. 1897.
=5.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =10=:99, 103. 1897. =6.= _Ibid._
=11=:281, 286 fig. 1898. =7.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 228. 1904.
=8.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =67=:283. 1904. =9.= _Ohio Sta. Bul._
=162=:258. 1905.
Wayland is of little interest to plum-growers who grow the Domestica
varieties without difficulty but in the South and Middle West it is an
important representative of a valuable species. The trees withstand the
hot, dry weather in the region south of central Iowa and Nebraska rather
better than do those of varieties of other species and its fruits are
borne in such quantities and so late that this and its kindred sorts
become important plums. The fruits are quite too firm of flesh, too
sour and too small to be of value for dessert purposes but they are
most excellent for jellies, marmalades and preserves—any of the uses
to which the Damsons are commonly put. They are, too, best adapted for
long-keeping and shipping of any of the native plums. Except in size, the
plums are hardly surpassed in the characters that make a fruit handsome
among the native plums. The trees are large, robust and hardy in central
New York, usually free from attacks of insects and fungi and, with their
abundant, glossy foliage, are strikingly ornamental. Wayland is of value
for New York, however, when all characters are considered, only in
furnishing variety, in extending the season for native plums and as an
ornamental.
Wayland was found in a plum thicket on the premises of Professor H. B.
Wayland, Cadiz, Kentucky. It was sent by him about 1875 to J. S. Downer
and Sons, Fairview, Todd County, Kentucky, who named and introduced
it. There has been much discussion as to the botanical status of this
variety, various writers having put it in at least three distinct species
and Waugh and Bailey have used it as the type of the Wayland group of
_Prunus hortulana_.
Tree very large and vigorous, spreading, somewhat drooping,
flat-topped, open, hardy at Geneva, productive; trunk shaggy;
branches rough, dark ash-gray, with inconspicuous lenticels,
medium in number and size; branchlets slender, twiggy, long,
with internodes of average length, green, changing to light
chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous,
large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds very small, short, obtuse,
plump, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, ovate or long-oval, peach-like, one and
seven-eighths inches across, five inches long, thin; upper
surface smooth and glossy, with a grooved midrib; lower surface
sparingly pubescent; apex acuminate, base abrupt, margin
unevenly serrate, glandular; petiole one inch long, slender,
pubescent along one side, with a tinge of red, with from one to
five very small, globose, brownish glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after
the leaves, thirteen-sixteenths inch across, white, with
disagreeable odor; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs,
in threes, fours or fives; pedicels fifteen-sixteenths inch
long, very slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish,
narrowly campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute,
erect, lightly pubescent within, serrate and with dark-colored
glands; petals ovate or oval, irregularly crenate, tapering
into long, narrow claws with hairy margins; anthers yellowish;
filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter
than the stamens.
Fruit very late, season long; one and one-eighth inches by one
inch in size, roundish-ovate narrowing somewhat toward the
stem, conical, slightly compressed, halves equal; cavity medium
to deep, narrow, abrupt; suture usually very shallow and wide,
often a distinct line; apex pointed; color dark currant-red,
with inconspicuous, thin bloom; dots numerous, small to
medium, conspicuous, densely clustered about the apex; stem
very slender, five-eighths inch long, glabrous, not adhering
to the fruit; skin thick, tough, clinging but slightly; flesh
attractive light yellow; moderately juicy, coarse, fibrous,
rather tender, mildly sweet next the skin but astringent
towards the pit; fair to good; stone clinging, five-eighths
inch by three-eighths inch in size, long-oval, somewhat
elongated at the base and apex, turgid, with rough and pitted
surfaces; ventral suture wide, blunt, faintly ridged; dorsal
suture acute, with a narrow, indistinct groove.
WEAVER
_Prunus americana_
=1.= _Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 267. 1874. =2.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 44. 1883. =3.= _Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 268. 1885. =4.=
_Minn. Sta. Bul._ =5=:36, 37 fig. 1889. =5.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =38=:45, 86. 1892. =6.= _Can. Hort._ =16=:409, Pl. 1893.
=7.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =123=:21. 1895. =8.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._
=63=:24, 62. 1897. =9.= _Colo. Sta. Bul._ =50=:46. 1898. =10.=
_Ia. Sta. Bul._ =46=:291. 1900. =11.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 166
fig. 1901. =12.= Budd-Hansen _Am. Hort. Man._ 302. 1903. =13.=
_Can. Exp. Farm Bul._ =43=:32. 1903. =14.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._
=67=:283. 1904. =15.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._ =93=:41. 1905.
Weaver is an old and well-known Americana, once one of the most popular
of its species because of its hardiness and productiveness. It is
still listed by many nurserymen and is widely distributed throughout
the country but it is now rapidly passing out of cultivation, being
superseded by sorts producing larger and better colored fruits.
This variety was found growing wild on the Cedar River, in Iowa, by a Mr.
Weaver. In 1873, Ennis and Patten, Charles City, Iowa, began its sale to
fruit-growers. The American Pomological Society placed the Weaver on its
fruit catalog list in 1883, dropped it in 1891, and replaced it in 1897.
The following description is partly compiled.
Tree large, vigorous, well formed, upright-spreading, unusually
hardy, productive; branches long, slender; branchlets slender,
long, with short internodes, reddish-brown, glabrous, with
numerous, conspicuous lenticels of medium size; leaf-buds
small, conical, of average length.
Leaves falling late, four and one-half inches long, two and
one-half inches wide, obovate or oval, firm, thick, leathery;
upper surface dark green, slightly roughened, glabrous, with
narrow midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent on the
midrib and larger veins; apex acuminate, base somewhat acute,
margin deeply and coarsely serrate; petiole five-eighths inch
long, stout, reddish, slightly pubescent along one side,
usually with two large, globose, reddish-brown glands on the
stem.
Flowers large, prominently stalked; calyx-lobes conspicuously
glandular, lightly pubescent within.
Fruit mid-season or later; one inch by three-quarters inch in
size, large for a native, oval or roundish-oblong, compressed,
halves unequal; cavity medium to shallow, narrow, rather
abrupt; suture shallow, distinct; apex roundish or depressed;
color not uniform, yellowish overlaid with purplish-red,
mottled, covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, often
purplish, inconspicuous; skin thick, very tough, astringent,
adhering to the pulp; flesh deep yellow, juicy, firm and
meaty, sweet, mild; fair to good; stone variable in adhesion,
three-quarters inch by three-eighths inch in size, long and
narrow, somewhat oval, flattened, obscurely pointed at the base
and apex, smooth.
WHITE BULLACE
[Illustration: WHITE BULLACE]
_Prunus insititia_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 576. 1629. =2.= Abercrombie _Gard.
Ass’t_ 13. 1786. =3.= Forsyth _Fr. Trees Am._ 21. 1803. =4.=
_Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 344. 1831. =5.= Prince _Pom. Man._
=2=:105. 1832. =6.= Floy-Lindley _Guide Orch. Gard._ 300, 383.
1846. =7.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 385. 1866. =8.= Downing _Fr. Trees
Am._ 952. 1869. =9.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ =4=:160, 161 fig.
960. 1901. =10.= _Can. Exp. Farms Rpt._ 481. 1904.
Bullace 5. _Bullace_ 7. White Bulleis 1.
The origin of this old sort is unknown. It was cultivated more than
three hundred years ago for Parkinson described it as common in his
time. He says of it “The White and the blacke Bulleis are common in most
Countries, being small round, lesser than Damsons, sharper in taste, and
later ripe.” It is probably one of the first of the cultivated plums.
White Bullace is illustrated and described in full in _The Plums of
New York_ chiefly as a means of comparison between the plums of three
centuries ago and those of the present. It has little value now for any
purpose, though the Europeans still grow it rather commonly and from
seeds, cions or suckers as convenience may dictate.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, dense-topped,
hardy, unproductive; branches ash-gray, nearly smooth, with
numerous, small, inconspicuous lenticels; branchlets thick,
above medium in length, with short internodes, greenish-red
changing to dark brownish-red, dull, with thick pubescence
throughout the season, with few, small lenticels; leaf-buds
small, short, stubby, obtuse, strongly appressed.
Leaves flattened, obovate, one and five-eighths inches wide,
two and three-eighths inches long, thick; upper surface dark
green, rugose, with few hairs along the narrow, grooved midrib;
lower surface silvery green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed
or acute, base acute, margin doubly serrate, eglandular;
petiole one-half inch long, green, pubescent, glandless or with
one or two small, globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in
position.
Blooming season medium to late, of average length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, three-quarters inch across, white,
scattered on lateral spurs; usually borne singly; pedicels
one-quarter inch long, thick, densely covered with short
hairs, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, campanulate, glabrous;
calyx-lobes acute, lightly pubescent on both surfaces,
glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals obovate, entire, with
short, broad claws; anthers yellow with red tinge; filaments
five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, nearly equal to the
stamens in length.
Fruit late, ripening season of medium length; about one inch in
diameter, roundish, compressed, truncate at the base; cavity
rather deep and wide, abrupt; suture a line; apex flattened or
depressed; color deep amber-yellow, sometimes with faint pink
blush on the exposed cheek, overspread with moderately thick
bloom; dots numerous, white, inconspicuous; stem one-half inch
long, covered with scant pubescence, adhering strongly to the
fruit; skin thin, astringent, slightly adhering; flesh deep
golden-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, firm, sour; poor in
quality; stone clinging, five-eighths inch by one-half inch
in size, ovate, turgid, blunt at the base, acute at the apex,
slightly roughened; ventral suture broad, blunt, shallowly
furrowed; dorsal suture with a wide, shallow groove.
WHITE DAMSON
_Prunus insititia_
=1.= Parkinson _Par. Ter._ 578. 1629. =2.= Quintinye _Com.
Gard._ 67, 69. 1699. =3.= M’Mahon _Am. Gard. Cal._ 588. 1806.
=4.= Coxe _Cult. Fr. Trees_ 238, fig. 15. 1817. =5.= _Lond.
Hort. Soc. Cat._ 146. 1831. =6.= Prince _Pom. Man._ =2=:88.
1832. =7.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 287. 1845. =8.= Floy-Lindley
_Guide Orch. Gard._ 300. 1846. =9.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._
334. 1849. =10.= Elliott _Fr. Book_ 430. 1854. =11.= _Am. Pom.
Soc. Rpt._ 190, 214. 1856. =12.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 385. 1866.
=13.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 952. 1869. =14.= Waugh _Plum
Cult._ 131. 1901.
_Frost Plum_ 6, 13. _Late Cluster_ 6, 13. Late White Damson 6.
_Late Yellow Damson_ 7, 9, 10, 13. _Shailer’s White Damson_ 7,
10, 12, 13. Shailer’s White Damson 5. _Small Round Damson_ 5.
White Damascene 4. _White Damascene_ 6, 7, 10, 13. White Damask
2. _White Damson_ 6. _White Prune Damson_ 7, 8, 10, 13. _White
Winter Damson_ 6, 13. White Winter Damson 3. _Winter Damson_ 6.
_Yellow Damson_ 9.
This old plum, known since the beginning of the Seventeenth Century,
is chiefly of historic interest. Downing thought this a very desirable
addition to our list of plums but nearly all other pomologists who have
seen the fruit of the variety think it of small importance. Unfortunately
it is not in the collection at this Station and can be neither
recommended nor condemned from first hand knowledge. This plum was first
noted in America by M’Mahon in 1806, and fifty years later it was added
to the American Pomological Society list of promising varieties. For
some reason, perhaps for its color, it has never become so well known as
the purple Damsons. Perhaps from the division of _Prunus insititia_ made
in _The Plums of New York_, this variety should be known as a Mirabelle
rather than as a Damson. The following description is a compilation:
Tree vigorous, very productive; branches long, slender. Fruit
matures the last of September, season long; small, oval, pale
yellow sprinkled with reddish-brown dots, covered with thin
bloom; flesh yellowish, sprightly, pleasant flavored; good to
very good; stone clinging.
WHITE IMPERATRICE
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Kraft _Pom. Aust._ =2=:33, Tab. 181 fig. 2; =2=:44, Tab.
197 fig. 2. 1796. =2.= Duhamel _Trait. Arb. Fr._ =2=:106. 1768.
=3.= _Pom. Mag._ =1=:38, Pl. 1828. =4.= Prince _Pom. Man._
=2=:61. 1832. =5.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 285. 1845. =6.=
Floy-Lindley _Guide Orch. Gard._ 300, 383. 1846. =7.= Poiteau
_Pom. Franc._ =1.= 1846. =8.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 329.
1849. =9.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 730. 1884. =10.= Mathieu _Nom.
Pom._ 454. 1889.
_Die Weisse Kaiserpflaume_ 3, 4, 6, 10 incor. Die Weisse
Kaiserpflaume 1. Die Weisse Kaiserinnpflaume 1. _Imperatrice
Blanche_ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. The White Imperatrice Plum
3. Prune Imperatrice Blanche 7. _White Imperatrice_ 3, 10.
_White Empress_ 5, 8, 10. Weisse Kaiserpflaume 10.
Kraft in his _Pomona Austriaca_, 1796, described a Weisse Kaiserpflaume
and a Weisse Kaiserinnpflaume and gave Imperatrice Blanche as a
synonym to both of them. The latter he gave as a variety of the Weisse
Kaiserpflaume but it is probable that they are the same since no other
author noted the distinction, and, in fact, the differences mentioned are
wholly insignificant. According to Downing this variety was little known
in this country in 1845 and it is doubtful if it is now known at all. It
is described as follows:
Compared with the Saint Catherine, which it resembles, it
is found to differ in that its stone is free and its flavor
less high; branches smooth; leaves smaller and less shining;
fruit matures in September; of medium size, obovate; suture
indistinct; cavity narrow; skin yellow, spotted with a little
red; bloom thin; flesh yellow, crisp, juicy, sweet.
WHITE PERDRIGON
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Rea _Flora_ 208. 1676. =2.= Langley _Pomona_ 92, 93, Pl.
XXIII figs. V & VI. 1729. =3.= Miller _Gard. Dict._ =3.= 1754.
=4.= Duhamel _Trait. Arb. Fr._ =2=:84, Pl. VIII. 1768. =5.=
Kraft _Pom. Aust._ =2=:41, Tab. 193 fig. 1. 1796. =6.= _Lond.
Hort. Soc. Cat._ 151. 1831. 7. Prince _Pom. Man._ =2=:52, 64.
1832. =8.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 287. 1845. =9.= Floy-Lindley
_Guide Orch. Gard._ 298, 301, 383. 1846. =10.= Hogg _Fruit
Man._ 386. 1866. =11.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 454. 1889.
_Brignolle_ 11. _Brignole_ 6, 8, 10, 11. Die weisse Duranzen
pflaume 5. _Diaprée Blanche_ 11. Maître Claude 2, 3, 7, 9.
Perdrigon blanc 4. _Perdrigon blanc_ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
_Maître Claude_ 8, 10, 11. Weisser Perdrigon 11. _Weisse
Diaprée_ 11. _Weisses Rebhuhnerei_ 11. _Prune-Pêche_ (of some)
11. _White Perdrigon_ 11.
White Perdrigon is an old French variety grown extensively in the
vicinity of Brignoles, France where it is used in the manufacture of the
famous Brignoles Prunes. Because of its use for this purpose, it has been
badly confused with a similar variety, the Brignole, which derived its
name from the town of Brignoles, where it was first grown. The variety
is probably not known in America and might be worth introducing. It is
described as follows:
The White Perdrigon is a mid-season, medium-sized, oval plum,
tapering slightly towards the base; suture shallow; cavity
small; stem slender; skin rather tough, pale yellow, with thin
bloom; dots numerous, small, whitish; flesh greenish-yellow,
melting, juicy, sweet, aromatic; good; stone small, long-oval,
free.
WICKSON
[Illustration: WICKSON]
_Prunus triflora_ × _Prunus simonii_
=1.= _U. S. D. A. Rpt._ 263. 1892. =2.= Burbank _Cat._ 21 fig.
1893. =3.= _Gard. & For._ =7=:420. 1894. =4.= _Cornell Sta.
Bul._ =106=:63. 1896. =5.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 53. 1897-8.
=6.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =139=:46 fig. 120. 1897. =7.= _Can.
Hort._ =21=:30 fig. 1272. 1898. =8.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._
=12=:229. 1899. =9.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =175=:148, 149 fig.
38. 1899. =10.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 41. 1899. =11.= _Kan. Sta.
Bul._ =101=:125. 1901. =12.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._ =187=:77, 80.
1901. =13.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 227. 1901. =14.= _U. S. D. A.
Rpt._ 387. 1901. =15.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =68=:13, Pl. IV, 37.
1905. =16.= _Md. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 85. 1905. =17.= _Am. Pom.
Soc. Rpt._ on Plums etc. 65. 1905.
_Eureka_ 5. Perfection 1, 2. _Perfection_ 4, 14.
It is difficult to estimate the value of Wickson in American pomology.
Probably no plum of recent introduction has been on the one hand so
highly lauded and on the other so condemned as this one. Its remarkable
size, the largest of the Oriental plums if not the largest of all plums;
its handsome color and distinct form; the firm flesh and peculiar flavor,
generally considered pleasant; the narrow upright tree with its long
lanceolate leaves, mark the variety as a new and for some parts of the
country a valuable addition to pomology. The contradictory evidence
as to its desirability arises from the fact that it can be well grown
in comparatively few plum-growing regions, most of these being on the
Pacific Coast and in the South. In New York, the Wickson has small value
other than in private collections. The variety is a little tender in tree
and bud, hardy only in favored parts of this State and not at all where
the peach cannot be grown; it blooms too early to be safe from frost; it
is susceptible to brown-rot; the trees are late in coming in bearing and
are not reliable in fruiting; the fruits ripen unevenly; and the trees
are not of good form for heavy crops. In California, however, the Wickson
is one of the leading Japanese sorts, possibly the leading one, and is
seemingly growing in favor. Starnes, one of the pomological authorities
of the South, in his bulletin on _Japan and Hybrid Plums_, speaks of
Wickson as a “grand plum” and as one of the best for Georgia. It is to be
hoped that from the same cross which produced Wickson or from breeding
this variety with some other, a plum of this type well suited to New York
may sometime be offered the plum-growers of this State.
Wickson is one of the best known of Burbank’s many plums. The variety was
first described in the report of the Secretary of Agriculture in 1892
under the name Perfection and as a seedling of Kelsey crossed by Burbank.
In 1893 and 1894 Burbank offered for sale the control and the stock of
this variety but found no buyers and in 1895 introduced it himself.
The parentage of the variety is in doubt. Burbank considered it a
Kelsey-Burbank cross; the _Pacific Rural Press_ described it as offspring
of Kelsey and Satsuma; Bailey, Waugh and the workers at this Station
believe it to have _Prunus simonii_ characters. The foliage, flowers, the
tree, the fruiting habit, the texture of the flesh, all indicate Simon
as one of its parents. According to the report of the Secretary of the
California State Board of Horticulture shipments of this plum were made
to New York in the season of 1897 under the name of Eureka. In 1899 it
was placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree medium to large, vigorous, with narrow, upright head,
dense-topped, tender to cold, an uncertain bearer; branches
medium in smoothness, the fruit-spurs numerous, dark ash-gray
with tinge of brown, with lenticels of medium size; branchlets
thick and long, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to
light chocolate-brown, glossy, glabrous; lenticels numerous,
raised, variable in size; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, free.
Leaves folded upward, lanceolate or oblanceolate, one inch
wide, three inches long, thin; upper surface dark green,
glossy, glabrous, with a slightly grooved midrib; lower
surface pale green, glabrous, except along the midrib; apex
taper-pointed, base cuneate, margin finely serrate, with
reddish glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, lightly
pubescent along one side, faintly tinged red, glandless or with
from one to nine small, reniform, greenish or yellow glands
variable in position.
Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, intermediate in size, white;
borne in clusters on lateral spurs, in pairs or in threes;
pedicels of medium length and thickness, glabrous, greenish;
calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, erect,
glandular-ciliate; petals oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers
yellowish; filaments below medium in length; pistil glabrous,
longer than the stamens.
Fruit early mid-season, period of ripening long; variable in
size, the larger fruits about two and one-eighth inches in
diameter, obliquely cordate, halves unequal; cavity deep,
abrupt, with yellowish concentric rings; suture often prominent
and deep, with a prolonged tip at the apex; color dark red over
a yellow ground, indistinctly splashed with darker red, mottled
with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, yellow, inconspicuous,
densely clustered about the apex; stem thick, eleven-sixteenths
inch long, glabrous; skin thin, tender, separating easily;
flesh amber-yellow, juicy, coarse, somewhat fibrous, firm,
sweet, pleasant but not high in flavor; good; stone clinging,
one inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval or ovate, pointed,
with pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged; dorsal suture
grooved.
WILD GOOSE
[Illustration: WILD GOOSE]
_Prunus munsoniana_
=1.= _Gard. Mon._ =9=:105. 1867. =2.= _Am. Jour. Hort._
=5=:147. 1869. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 60. 1869. =4.= _Am.
Hort. An._ 78. 1870. =5.= _Country Gent._ =35=:166. 1870. =6.=
_Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 116. 1871. =7.= _Ibid._ 44. 1875. =8.=
_Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 36. 1875. =9.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 152,
153, 154. 1883. =10.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 454. 1889. =11.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:51, fig. 3, 86. 1892. =12.= _Tex.
Sta. Bul._ =32=:482, fig. 4. 1894. =13.= _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._
=10=:99, 104. 1897. =14.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._ =63=:24, 63 fig. 31.
1897. =15.= _Ala. Col. Sta. Bul._ =112=:178. 1900. =16.= Waugh
_Plum Cult._ 189, 190. 1901. =17.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =67=:284.
1904. =18.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._ =93=:42. 1905. =19.= _Ohio Sta.
Bul._ =162=:258. 1905.
_Nolen Plum_ 10. _Suwanee_ 9. Suwanee ?16.
Wild Goose is the first of the native plums to be generally grown as a
distinct variety though Miner was first known and named. Wild Goose, too,
is probably a parent of more sorts than any other variety of the several
cultivated native species, most of its offspring so strongly resembling
it that its name has been given to a group of its closely related sorts.
In spite of the great number of native plums that have been introduced in
recent years, Wild Goose is still a favorite—probably more trees of it
are now cultivated than of any other native plum. Its good qualities are:
bright attractive color; tender and melting flesh with a sprightly and
refreshing flavor; a tough skin which fits the variety well for shipment
and long-keeping; comparative freedom from brown-rot and curculio and
a large, hardy, healthy and, when cross-pollinated, a very productive
tree. Wild Goose has been more extensively planted in New York than any
other plum of its kind and in a few cases has proved a fairly profitable
commercial sort. It is doubtful if it is now the best of its species for
this State but it can at least be recommended for home plantings and in
some localities as a market plum. Wherever planted there should be some
other native sort blooming at the same time for cross-pollination.
The following account of the origin of this variety, more romantic than
credible, is told with several variations. About 1820, M. E. McCance,
who lived near Nashville, Tennessee, shot a wild goose on his farm;
his wife, in dressing the goose, found a plum seed in the craw, which,
planted in the garden, produced the Wild Goose tree. The merits of
the new fruit seem to have been discovered by J. S. Downer, Fairview,
Kentucky, and James Harvey of Columbia, Tennessee. The former propagated,
named and began the dissemination of Wild Goose to fruit-growers. Many
varieties have been sent out for this plum and much confusion has arisen
as to what the true variety is. Since the characters of Wild Goose,
even when cross-pollinated, are transmitted to its offspring to a
remarkable degree, the name now applies to a class of plums rather than
to a variety. The American Pomological Society placed this variety on
the fruit catalog list of the Society in 1875, dropped it in 1891, and
replaced it in 1897.
Tree very large and vigorous, wide-spreading, flat-topped,
hardy in New York, productive; branches rough and shaggy, dark
ash-gray, with numerous, large, elongated lenticels; branchlets
slender, long, with internodes of medium length, greenish-red
changing to dull reddish-brown, glossy, glabrous, with many,
conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short,
obtuse, free.
Leaves folded upward, lanceolate, peach-like, four and
one-quarter inches long, one and one-half inches wide, thin;
upper surface light or dark green changing to reddish late in
the season, smooth, glabrous, with a grooved midrib; lower
surface pale green, glabrous except along the midrib and larger
veins; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin finely serrate,
with small, reddish-black glands; petiole five-eighths inch
long, slender, pubescent along one side, tinged red, glandless
or with from one to six globose, yellow or reddish-brown glands
on the stalk and base of the leaf.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the
leaves, three-quarters inch across, white, with disagreeable
odor; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes
or fours; pedicels five-eighths inch long, slender, glabrous,
green; calyx-tube greenish, narrowly campanulate; calyx-lobes
narrow, glabrous on the outer surface, lightly pubescent
within, entire, heavily pubescent and with reddish glands on
the margin, erect; petals ovate, entire, long and narrowly
clawed; anthers yellow, with a tinge of red; filaments
five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the
stamens in length.
Fruit very early, season of medium length; one and
three-eighths inches by one and three-sixteenths inches in
size, oval, halves equal; cavity small, narrow, shallow, rather
abrupt; suture an indistinct line; apex roundish or pointed;
color bright red, with thin bloom; dots few in number, light
russet, somewhat conspicuous, clustered about the apex; the
stem attached to a stem-like growth from the fruit-spurs gives
the appearance on the tree of a jointed stem, very slender,
three-quarters inch long, glabrous, not adhering well to the
fruit; skin tough, slightly astringent, separating readily;
flesh yellowish, very juicy and fibrous, tender and melting,
sweet next the skin but sour at the center, sprightly; fair
to good; stone adhering, seven-eighths inch by three-eighths
inch in size, long and narrow-oval, flattened, slightly necked
at the base, acute at the apex, roughened; ventral suture
wide, blunt, ridged; dorsal suture acute or with a shallow,
indistinct groove.
WILLARD
_Prunus triflora_
=1.= _Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 81. 1893. =2.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=62=:31. 1894. =3.= _Ibid._ =106=:64. 1896. =4.= _Ibid._
=131=:194. 1897. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 26. 1897. =6.=
_Mich. Sta. Bul._ =177=:42, 43. 1899. =7.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._
=175=:134 fig. 27. 1899. =8.= _Rural N. Y._ =57=:515, 530, 595.
1898. =9.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 140. 1901. =10.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._
=68=:33. 1905. =11.= _Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 420. 1905.
_Botan No. 26_ 2, 3, 9. _Botan_ 1. Botan No. 26 1. _Willard
Plum_ 1. Willard Japan 8.
Willard is about the earliest of the Triflora plums that can be shipped
to the markets. When this is said all is said; as the variety has little
else to recommend it, being very inferior in quality and having a
reputation of being subject to shot-hole fungus. S. D. Willard, Geneva,
New York, procured cions of this variety from California about 1888
from an importation made by Burbank from Japan. According to Willard,
the plum was received under the name Botan and he labelled it No. 26
to avoid confusion; in 1893, it was named Willard by W. F. Heikes of
the Huntsville Nurseries, Huntsville, Alabama. The American Pomological
Society placed the variety on its fruit catalog list in 1897.
Tree medium to large, vigorous, vasiform, productive;
leaves falling early, folded upward, oblanceolate, one and
three-eighths inches wide, three and three-quarters inches
long, thin, glabrous; margin finely and doubly serrate, with
very small glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, with from
one to five reniform glands usually on the stalk.
Fruit early, of medium size, roundish or somewhat oblong, blunt
at the apex, dark red when well grown, covered with thick
bloom; stem short, thick, adhering poorly to the fruit; skin
sour; flesh greenish-yellow, rather firm, sweet, low in flavor;
poor in quality; stone variable in adhesion, of medium size.
WOLF
[Illustration: WOLF]
_Prunus americana mollis_
=1.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 367. 1883. =2.= _Rural N. Y._
=44=:645. 1885. =3.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 40. 1889. =4.=
_Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:45 fig. 2, 87. 1892. =5.= _Mich. Sta.
Bul._ =118=:54. 1895. =6.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._ =63=:24, 64. 1897.
=7.= _Colo. Sta. Bul._ =50=:47. 1898. =8.= Waugh _Plum Cult._
167. 1901. =9.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._ =67=:284 fig. 1904. =10.= _S.
Dak. Sta. Bul._ =93=:42. 1905. =11.= _Ia. Sta. Bul._ =114=:148
fig. 1910.
_Wolf Free_ 4, 6. _Wolf Freestone_ 11.
Wolf has long maintained a high place among the standard Americana plums,
with which it is usually classed though put in a sub-species, and from
which it differs chiefly in having much more pubescence on foliage,
floral organs and branchlets. It is noted for its great hardiness,
reliability in bearing, attractive and well-flavored fruits and in being
one of the few freestones of its kind. This plum is remarkably well
adapted for the northern part of the Mississippi Valley and there alone
it is worth planting extensively. In New York it might prove valuable in
the coldest parts of the State where the Domesticas and Insititias cannot
be grown.
This variety was raised from a pit of a wild plum planted on the farm of
D. B. Wolf, Wapello County, Iowa, about 1852. Professor J. L. Budd of
the Iowa Agricultural College stated in 1885 that for over a quarter of
a century the original tree had not failed to produce a partial or large
crop annually on the grounds of the originator. A spurious clingstone
type of the Wolf has been propagated in some nurseries but this false
plum is readily distinguished from the true freestone type. The variety
was added to the American Pomological Society fruit catalog list in 1889,
dropped in 1891, and replaced in 1897.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, low, and open-topped, hardy,
productive, healthy; branches rough and shaggy, thorny, dark
ash-gray, with numerous, small lenticels; branchlets somewhat
slender, short, twiggy, with internodes below medium in length,
green changing to dull brownish-drab, overspread with thick
pubescence, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf-buds very
small, short, conical, strongly appressed.
Leaves falling early, oval, one and seven-eighths inches wide,
three and seven-eighths inches long, thin; upper surface medium
green, lightly pubescent, with a narrow groove on the midrib;
lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex taper-pointed,
margin coarsely and doubly serrate, eglandular; petiole
one-half inch long, velvety, tinged red, glandless or with one
or two small, globose, yellowish glands on the stalk or base of
the leaf.
Blooming season of average length, late; flowers opening after
the leaves, one inch across, the buds tinged yellow changing to
white as the flowers expand; borne on lateral buds and spurs;
pedicels nine-sixteenths inch long, thickly pubescent, green;
calyx-tube greenish-red, campanulate, covered with short,
fine pubescence; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, heavily pubescent
on both surfaces, with few marginal glands, reflexed; petals
inclined to curl, long-oval, fringed, long and narrowly clawed;
anthers yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil
sparingly hairy on the ovary, equal to or shorter than the
stamens, frequently defective.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; less than one inch in
diameter, roundish-oval or somewhat obovate, compressed, halves
equal; cavity frequently yellowish, shallow, narrow, abrupt;
suture an indistinct line; apex roundish or flattened; color
dull crimson, thickly mottled, overspread with thick bloom;
dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; stem slender,
glabrous, adhering poorly to the fruit; skin thick, tough,
slightly roughened, astringent, adhering; flesh golden-yellow,
very juicy, fibrous, tender and melting, sweet next the skin,
but astringent toward the center; fair to good; stone semi-free
to free, five-eighths inch by three-eighths inch in size,
roundish-obovate, tapering at the base, blunt at the apex, with
smooth surfaces; ventral suture winged; dorsal suture acute, or
with a faint, narrow groove.
WOOD
[Illustration: WOOD]
_Prunus americana_
=1.= _Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 60. 1894. =2.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._
=63=:64. 1897. =3.= _Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 433. 1898. =4.=
Waugh _Plum Cult._ 168. 1901.
Wood is one of the comparatively new Americanas and seems to have
considerable merit, especially for cold climates. It is attractive in
color; above the average size; good in quality, though not the best of
its species; and the trees in habit of growth and in productiveness are
better than most Americanas. It is sufficiently early to fit into the
short seasons of northern latitudes very well. Wood is one of the sorts
that can be recommended for the coldest parts of this State.
This variety, according to a letter from the originator and introducer,
Joseph Wood of Windom, Minnesota, is a seedling from a choice plum
found growing on the bank of the Des Moines River, Cottonwood County,
Minnesota. It was not mentioned in pomological literature previous to
1894 and is of too recent origin to be widely distributed or well known.
Tree of medium size, spreading, hardy, dense-topped, an annual
and abundant bearer; trunk shaggy; branches roughish, thorny,
zigzag, brownish ash-gray, with numerous, small lenticels;
branchlets slender to medium, above the average length, twiggy,
with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brown,
lightly pubescent when young becoming glabrous in the fall,
with numerous, conspicuous, large, much raised lenticels;
leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed.
Leaves falling early, ovate, two inches wide, four inches
long, thin; upper surface light green, rugose, glabrous, with
a narrow groove on the midrib; lower surface silvery-green,
pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely
serrate, with long, taper-pointed teeth, eglandular; petiole
five-eighths inch long, slender, tinged red, lightly pubescent,
glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-red
glands on the stalk.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, eleven-sixteenths inch across,
white; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes
or fours; pedicels three-eighths inch long, slender, glabrous,
green; calyx-tube greenish, narrowly campanulate, glabrous;
calyx-lobes narrow, acute, lightly pubescent, occasionally
tipped with red, serrate, with many marginal hairs, reflexed;
petals oval, notched, tapering at the base to narrow claws of
medium length; anthers light yellow; filaments five-sixteenths
inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens, often
defective.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and one-quarter
inches in diameter, oblate, compressed, oblique, halves equal;
cavity of average depth and width, flaring; suture a line; apex
flattened or depressed; color dark red over a yellow ground,
mottled, with thin bloom; dots numerous, minute, light russet,
inconspicuous; stem one-half inch long, glabrous, detaches
from the fruit when ripe; skin thick, tough, sour, adhering;
flesh orange-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, tender and
melting, sweet, lacking in flavor; fair in quality; stone free,
three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish,
flattened, slightly oblique, blunt and flattened at the base,
roundish at the apex, smooth; ventral suture acute, not ridged;
dorsal suture acute, sometimes indistinctly grooved.
WORLD BEATER
[Illustration: WORLD BEATER]
_Prunus hortulana_
=1.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:52. 1892. =2.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._
=63=:65. 1897. =3.= _W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ =41=:54. 1896.
=4.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 182. 1901.
World Beater is very similar to Wayland, differing chiefly in being
a week earlier and, as the color-plate shows, the plums are a little
smaller and more oval. In tree-characters, as the two grow at this
Station, World Beater is perhaps the better plum. This variety has the
same place in pomology as Wayland, a place which it fills possibly a
little better. It may be recommended for culinary purposes and as a late
plum for regions where the peach is hardy. Plums of this species have
small value in New York except for the sake of variety.
World Beater was grown from a seed of a plum found near Nashville,
Tennessee, in 1838, by J. H. Tinsley and planted in Lincoln County,
Kentucky. About ten years later trees of the variety were taken to Clay
County, Missouri, and were further propagated but the variety remained
practically unknown until the fall of 1890 when it was introduced by
Stark Brothers of Missouri.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open and flat-topped, hardy
where the peach can be grown, productive; branches rough and
shaggy, somewhat thorny, dark ash-gray, with numerous, large
lenticels; branchlets medium to above in thickness and length,
twiggy, with internodes of average length, green changing to
dark chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with few, conspicuous,
large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds very small and short,
obtuse, plump, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one and
three-quarters inches wide, four and one-half inches long,
thin; upper surface smooth, glossy, with a shallow groove on
the midrib; lower surface pubescent on the midrib and larger
veins; apex acuminate, base abrupt, margin serrate, glandular;
petiole one inch long, slender, tinged red, pubescent on one
side, with from two to six small, globose, brownish glands
scattered on the stalk or base of the leaf.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the
leaves, three-quarters inch across, white, with a disagreeable
odor; borne in clusters from lateral buds, in twos, threes
or fours; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender,
glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous;
calyx-lobes narrow, acuminate, slightly pubescent towards the
base of the inner surface, serrate and with reddish glands,
erect; petals ovate, crenate, fringed, with pubescent claws of
medium width; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch
long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit very late, season short; one inch by seven-eighths inch
in size, roundish-ovate or oval, not compressed, halves equal;
cavity narrow, shallow, rather abrupt; suture a line; apex
pointed; color carmine, bloomless; dots medium in number,
small, whitish or sometimes reddish, somewhat conspicuous; stem
slender, medium to above in length, glabrous, not adhering to
the fruit; skin thick, tough, astringent, adhering slightly;
flesh light yellow, juicy, coarse, melting near the skin but
firmer and fibrous next the pit, sweet except near the center,
strongly aromatic; fair to good; stone often tinged red,
adhering, three-quarters inch by three-eighths inch in size,
oval, turgid, angular, pointed at the base and apex, roughish;
ventral suture wide, blunt, ridged; dorsal suture acute or with
an indistinct, shallow groove.
WYANT
_Prunus americana_
=1.= _Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 327. 1885. =2.= _Ibid._ 85. 1890.
=3.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:46. 1892. =4.= _Ia. Hort.
Soc. Rpt._ 448. 1893. =5.= _Ia. Sta. Bul._ =31=:345. 1895.
=6.= _Kan. Sta. Bul._ =73=:192. 1897. =7.= _Wis. Sta. Bul._
=63=:24, 65 fig. 32, 66. 1897. =8.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 24.
1897. =9.= _Colo. Sta. Bul._ =50=:47. 1898. =10.= _Ia. Sta.
Bul._ =46=:292. 1900. =11.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 167 fig., 168.
1901. =12.= _Can. Exp. Farm Bul._ =43=:32. 1903. =13.= _Ga.
Sta. Bul._ =67=:284, 285 fig. 1904. =14.= _S. Dak. Sta. Bul._
=93=:44, 49 fig. 1905.
Wyant is one of the standard Americana plums, ranking well with the
best of them in both fruit and tree-characters. While it is almost
beyond question a true Americana (from its history it could hardly be
otherwise,) it has a number of characters that mark it as a departure
from the usual type of _Prunus americana_. The calyx-tube is bright
red, a character found only in a few other varieties of this species;
the stamens are much longer than is usual in the species and much more
numerous; the pistils are often defective; the flowers are borne in
greater profusion; the plums do not have the distinctive Americana taste;
the flesh is less juicy than usual; the skin is free and the stones are
nearly free and have pitted surfaces. Some of these characters are so
valuable in a native plum that Wyant may well be used to breed from. The
trees from which the description here given was made came from C. L.
Watrous, Des Moines, Iowa, and to the best of our belief are true to name.
This variety, according to a letter from J. E. Wyant, Shellsburg, Iowa,
was found by J. B. Wyant of Janesville, Iowa, while hunting for wild
plums in 1866 on the Cedar River near his home. The following year he
transplanted the tree to his yard. About 1874, J. E. Wyant told R. Royce
of Shellsburg, Iowa, proprietor of the Benton County Nursery, of this
tree. Royce secured cuttings from the original tree and began propagating
the plum. Fruits were sent to Professor J. L. Budd, Ames, Iowa, who named
it Wyant. The variety was introduced by Mr. Royce and was disseminated
by him and by Professor Budd. In 1897 it was added to the fruit catalog
list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree small, spreading and straggling, flat-topped, very hardy,
productive, healthy; branches rough and shaggy, zigzag, thorny,
dark ash-gray, with numerous, large lenticels; branchlets
willowy, slender, long, with long internodes, greenish-red
changing to reddish-brown, glossy, glabrous, with conspicuous,
raised lenticels of average size and number; leaf-buds small,
pointed, strongly appressed.
Leaves falling early, folded upward, oval, one and five-eighths
inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, thin; upper
surface green, smooth, glabrous, grooved on the midrib and
larger veins; lower surface silvery-green, lightly pubescent;
apex acuminate, base abrupt, margin coarsely and doubly
serrate, the serrations sharp-pointed, not glandular; petiole
one-half inch long, tinged red, pubescent, glandless or with
from one to five globose, yellowish-green glands on the stalk.
Blooming season medium to late, of average length; flowers
appearing with the leaves, showy on account of the many
blossoms and peculiar appearance caused by the numerous long
stamens, whitish, with disagreeable odor; borne in dense
clusters on lateral buds and spurs, one to four flowers in
each cluster; pedicels one-half inch long, slender, glabrous,
green, faintly tinged with red; calyx-tube red, obconic,
glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, lightly pubescent on
the inner surface, serrate and with numerous marginal hairs,
erect; petals small, narrow-ovate, crenate, with narrow, long
claws; stamens very numerous; anthers yellowish; filaments
three-eighths inch long; pistil slender, glabrous, shorter than
the stamens, often defective.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and one-quarter
inches in diameter, not symmetrical in shape, oblong-obovate
to nearly ovate, oblique, somewhat truncate, halves equal;
cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture a line; apex slightly
flattened; color dark carmine over a yellow ground which
largely disappears as maturity advances, with thin bloom;
dots numerous, very small, light russet, inconspicuous; stem
slender, one-half inch long, glabrous, dehiscent; skin thin,
tender, separating readily; flesh dark golden-yellow, juicy,
tender and melting, sweet, with the Americana flavor less
marked than in other varieties; of fair quality; stone nearly
free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, broadly
oval, flattened, blunt at the base, somewhat pointed at the
apex, with pitted, dark colored surfaces; ventral suture blunt
or slightly winged, shallowly ridged; dorsal suture acute, with
shallow, narrow, distinct groove.
YELLOW EGG
[Illustration: YELLOW EGG]
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Rea _Flora_ 209. 1676. =2.= Ray _Hist. Plant._ =2=:1528,
1529. 1688. =3.= Langley _Pomona_ 95, Pl. XXV fig. VI. 1729.
=4.= Miller _Gard. Dict._ 3. 1754. =5.= Duhamel _Trait. Arb.
Fr._ =2=:107, Pl. XX fig. 10. 1768. =6.= Knoop _Fructologie_
=2=:59. 1771. =7.= Kraft _Pom. Aust._ =2=:29, Tab. 175 fig.
1; 38, Tab. 188 fig. 1. 1796. =8.= Forsyth _Treat. Fr. Trees_
20, 21. 1803. =9.= Coxe _Cult. Fr. Trees_ 233, fig. 8. 1817.
=10.= _Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat._ 149. 1831. =11.= Prince _Pom.
Man._ =2=:57, 58. 1832. =12.= Kenrick _Am. Orch._ 258, 269.
1832. =13.= Floy-Lindley _Guide Orch. Gard._ 299, 301. 1846.
=14.= Poiteau _Pom. Franc._ =1=: fig. 1846. =15.= Thomas _Am.
Fruit Cult._ 333. 1849. =16.= Elliott _Fr. Book_ 424. 1854.
=17.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_ 520. 1859. =18.= _Am. Pom. Soc.
Cat._ 88. 1862. =19.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 954 fig. 1869.
=20.= _Pom. France_ =7=: No. 18. 1871. =21.= Koch _Deut. Obst._
560. 1876. =22.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 730. 1884. =23.= Mathieu
_Nom. Pom._ 431. 1889. =24.= Fell _Cat._ 49. 1893. =25.= _Guide
Prat._ 163, 354. 1895. =26.= _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =131=:193.
1897.
_Aechte Gelbe Eierpflaume_ 25. _Albert’s Damascene_ 23, 25.
_Albertus Damen Pflaume_ 20, 23, 25. _Askew’s Golden_ 20.
_Askew’s Golden Egg_ 16, 19, 22, 23, 25. _Aubertiana_ 21.
_Bonum Magnum_ 11, 20, 22, 23, 25. Bonum Magnum 1, 2. _Col.
Young’s Seedling_ 16. _Dame Aubert_ 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 23,
25. _Dame Ambert_ 16. Dame Aubert 5, 12. _Damas Aubert_ 7, 23,
25. _Dame Aubert Blanche_ 10, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25. _Dame
Ambert Blanche_ 16. _Dame Aubert Grosse Luisante_ 11. _Dame
Ambert Jaune_ 16. _Dame Aubert Jaune_ 10, 11, 17, 19, 20, 23.
Darwin Peach 24. _Die Albertus Damenpflaume_ 7. _De Besançon_
25. _De Monsieur_ 25 incor. Die Grosse Weisse Glanzende 7. Die
Kaiserliche Weisse Pflaume ?7. _D’OEuf_ 25. _D’OEuf Blanche_
25. _Dutch Plum_ 1, 11. _Dutch Plumb_ 3. _Echte Gelbe Eier
Pflaume_ 23. _Edle Gelbe Eger Pflaume_ 20. _Edle Gelbe Eier
Pflaume_ 23, 25. _Egg Plum_ 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17,
19, 20, 22, 23, 25. _Eier Pflaume_ 23, 25. _Gelbe Eger Pflaume_
20, 23, 25. _Gelbe Egg_ 20, 23, 25. _Gelbe Malonke_ 23, 25.
_Gelbe Ungarische Eier Pflaume_ 23, 25. _Gelbe Marunke_ 23,
25. Gelbe Eierpflaume 23. _Gelbe Eierpflaume_ 20, 25. _Grosse
Weisse Glanzende_ 20, 23, 25. Great Mogul ?2. Grosse Datte ?5.
_Grosse-Luisante_ 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22,
23, 25. _Gros Luisante_ 12. _Gelbe Ungarische Eyerpflaume_
20. _Grosse Prune Blanche_ 20, 23, 25. _Grosse Maronke_ 25.
_Grosse Marouk_ 20, 23, 25. _Grosse Glanzende Alberts Pflaume_
23, 25. _Grosse Glanzende_ 20, 25. _Grosse Glanzende Pflaume_
23. _Grosse Gelbe Eier Pflaume_ 23, 25. _Grosse Marunke_ 23.
_Grünliche Dattel Pflaume von Besançon_ 23, 25. _Hick’s large
Egg?_ 11. Impériale Blanche ?5. _Impériale Blanche_ ?7, 10, 11,
12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 22, ?23, 25. _Imperial Blanc_ 11. _Large
Yellow Egg_ 11. _Magnum Bonum_ 19. Monsieur’s Plum ?4, ?8.
_Monsieur’s Plum_ ?4. Mogul 9. _Monsieur_ 11. _Mogul_ 4, 8, 11,
23. _Mogul Plum_ 25. Mogule Plumb 3. _Mogule_ 11. _Mogol Plum_
20, 23, 25. _Mogols Pflaume_ 20, 23, 25. _Mogul’s Pflaume_ 23,
25. Prune de Monsieur? 4, 6. _Prune de Monsieur_ 23 incor.
_Prune OEuf_ 20. Prune Dame Aubert 14, 20. _Prune d’Oeuf_ 20,
23. _Prune d’Oeuf blanche_ 6, 23. _Prune d’Inde Blanc_ 19.
_Prune De Besançon_ 20, 23. Prune Dame d’Aubert 21. _Prune
d’Inde Blanche_ 23. Supreme ?14. Wentworth 13. _Wentworth_ ?8,
10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 19, 23, 25. Wentworth Plumb ?3. _White
Imperial_ 9, 11, 15, 16, 19, 23. White Imperial 11. White
Imperial Bonum Magnum 4, 8. _White Holland_ 3, 4, 8, 10, 11,
12, 16, 17, 19, 23, 25. _White Magnum Bonum_ 9, 11, 13, 15,
16, 19, 20, 23, 25. _Weisse Kaiser Pflaume_ 23, 25. _Weisse
Hollandische Pflaume_ 23, 25. _White Bonum Magnum_ 3, 11, 20,
23, 25. _White Egg Plum_ 11. White Magnum Bonum 10, 12, 17, 18,
22, 23. _White Mogul_ 10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25. White
Egg 15. _White Egg_ 16, 19, 23, 25. _Weisser Kaiser_ 23, 25.
_Weisse Magnum Bonum_ 20, 23, 25. _Weisse Kaiserin_ 23 incor.
_Yellow Magnum Bonum_ 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25.
_Yellow Bonum Magnum_ 20, 23, 25. _Young’s Superior Egg_ ?11.
_Yellow Egg_ 18, 23, 25.
The characters of Yellow Egg were given in the discussion of the group
which bears its name and but little more needs to be said of the
variety. As the largest and handsomest of the yellow plums it is worth
consideration by either the amateur or the commercial fruit-grower in New
York. At best, however, it is fit only for cooking and is none too good
for culinary purposes. The trees are very satisfactory on all but very
light soils. As has been suggested before, this plum ought to be crossed
with varieties of better quality with the hope of getting as handsome a
fruit but one which could be used for dessert purposes.
The references and synonyms show that Yellow Egg is a plum with an
interesting history, but unfortunately the accounts of its origin
and subsequent history have been but poorly preserved. Rea, in 1676,
described the Yellow Egg as the Bonum Magnum or Dutch Plum; we may
infer from this that the English obtained the variety from Holland.
Knoop of Holland, in 1771, described the variety under the name Prune
d’Oeuf Blanche, indicating a French origin. Knoop describes the Prune De
Monsieur as similar and this plum has ever since been held as doubtfully
identical. Duhamel, in _Traite des Arbres Fruitiers_, 1768, described
Yellow Egg as the Dame Aubert. Kraft in _Pomona Austriaca_, 1796, gave
it as the Die Grosse Weisse Glanzende, oder Die Albertus Damenpflaume.
These references show that Yellow Egg was well known at an early date.
Because of its close resemblance to many varieties, probably due to
the propagation of seedlings from it, much confusion exists in the
nomenclature of Yellow Egg. White Imperial was separated by Duhamel and
Prince; but Miller, Thompson and most of the subsequent writers give
it as the same. Duhamel believed the Imperial Blanche (White Imperial)
to be the Grosse Datte. So, too, the Wentworth was at first separated
but, later, was recorded as identical. Koch calls Yellow Egg one of the
Datterpflaumen (Date Plums) though he states that there is another Date
Plum known by Tragus more than three hundred years ago as Prunidactyla.
De Candolle seems to hold to the names Dame d’Aubert and Aubertina for
this plum. Professor Budd in exploring southwest Russia and Poland found
a Dame Aubert differing from our Yellow Egg only in minor characters
which he was told came from central Asia.
The exact date of the importation of Yellow Egg to this country is
unknown. Coxe, in 1817, described it as the Mogul and later Prince gave
it the name Yellow Egg. Owing to this change in name, we find America
now and then given as its place of origin by both American and English
writers. In 1862, the American Pomological Society added it to its
fruit catalog list under the name White Magnum Bonum but in 1871, the
name was changed to Yellow Egg. The Darwin Peach, sent out by Fell, a
nurseryman in England, has proved to be identical at this Station and its
distributor, in a recent letter, states that this plum, which has been
growing on his place thirty years, “is apparently identical to the White
Magnum Bonum” which is of course Yellow Egg.
Tree, large, vigorous, round-topped, open, hardy, very
productive; trunk roughish; branches numerous, ash-gray, nearly
smooth, with rather large lenticels; branchlets slender,
short, with long intemodes, greenish-red changing to dull
brownish-red, dull, lightly pubescent throughout the season,
covered with thin bloom, with few, inconspicuous, small
lenticels; leaf-buds above medium in size, long, pointed, free.
Leaves flattened or somewhat folded backward, oval, two and
one-half inches wide, four and one-quarter inches long,
leathery; upper surface dark green, pubescent, slightly rugose,
with grooved midrib; lower surface medium green, thickly
pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin
doubly serrate, with few dark glands; petiole five-eighths inch
long, thick, reddish-purple, pubescent, glandless or with one
or two globose, yellowish-green glands variable in position.
Blooming season short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one
inch across, white, with a yellowish tinge at the tip of the
petals; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs;
pedicels one-half inch long, covered with thick pubescence,
greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes
broad, obtuse, pubescent, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals
roundish-oval, crenate or sometimes slightly notched, tapering
to short, broad claws; anthers yellow; filaments three-eighths
inch long; pistil pubescent, longer than the stamens; stigma
oblique.
Fruit late, season short; two inches by one and five-eighths
inches in size, long-oval, compressed, halves nearly equal;
cavity of medium depth, narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, often
a line; apex roundish; color golden-yellow, covered with
thick bloom; dots numerous, small, white, inconspicuous; stem
slender, one and one-quarter inches long, pubescent, adhering
well to the fruit, surrounded at the cavity by a fleshy
collar; skin thin, slightly astringent, separating readily;
flesh golden-yellow, rather juicy, moderately coarse, firm, of
average sweetness, mild; good; stone semi-free or free, one and
one-quarter inches by three-quarters inch in size, oval, rather
flat, acute at the base and apex, with roughened and pitted
surfaces; ventral suture wide, heavily ridged, often distinctly
winged; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
YELLOW GAGE
_Prunus domestica_
=1.= Prince _Treat. Hort._ 25. 1828. =2.= Prince _Pom. Man._
=2=:108. 1832. =3.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 287, 288 fig. 115.
1845. =4.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 329. 1849. =5.= Cole _Am.
Fr. Book_ 208 fig. 1849. =6.= _Horticulturist_ =7=:403. 1852.
=7.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 36, 55. 1852. =8.= Elliott _Fr. Book_
414. 1854. =9.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt._ 210. 1856. =10.= Bridgeman
_Gard. Ass’t_ =3=:126. 1857. =11.= _U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt._ 190,
Pl. XIII. 1865. =12.= Mas _Pom. Gen._ =2=:163, fig. 82. 1873.
=13.= Barry _Fr. Garden_ 417. 1883. =14.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._
443. 1889. =15.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 126. 1901.
_American Wheat_ 10. _American Yellow Gage_ of some 3, 4,
8, 11, 14. American Yellow Gage 10. _Auserlesene Gelhe
Reine-Claude_ 14. _Harvest Gage_ 6, 8, 11, 14. Prince’s Gage
1. Prince’s Gelbe Reine-Claude 14. Prince’s Yellow Gage 2, 3,
4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11. _Prince’s Yellow Gage_ 5, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Reine-Claude Jaune De Prince 12. _White Gage_ of some 3, 8, 11,
14.
Yellow Gage belongs to the Reine Claude, or as it is so often called,
the Green Gage group of plums. There are now a great number of these
plums under cultivation in America, most of which have originated in this
country and nearly all of which, as we have said before, are better
than similar kinds from Europe. It is difficult to select from the
numerous first-rate plums of this group the best varieties to retain in
home or commercial orchards. Among these, however, Yellow Gage should be
kept for the home orchard at least. It is a rather large fruit, with a
beautiful color—golden-yellow often with a faint blush, with a firm and
juicy yet tender flesh and a most refreshing admixture of sweet and sour
together with the richness which characterizes the Reine Claude plums.
The fruits come, too, at a time when the market is not overstocked with
these fine plums and the season is particularly long. A review of the
tree-characters in the description which follows shows that in the main
they are good though some complain that the variety is not productive.
This precariousness in bearing, together with the tender skin which keeps
Yellow Gage from standing shipment well, probably precludes the variety
from a high place in a commercial list but does not prevent its being a
most desirable plum for home planting.
This excellent old variety was probably one of the first plums to
originate in America. It came from a Reine Claude pit planted, with many
others, by William Prince[226] in 1783 in the celebrated Prince nurseries
at Flushing, Long Island. Despite its early origin and fine qualities it
has never had much recognition from pomologists. Downing described it in
1845 but neither Manning nor Kenrick in their excellent books on fruits
mention this plum. The American Pomological Society in 1852 listed it
with the varieties of plums promising well and in 1856 placed it on the
list of those worthy of general cultivation.
Tree very large and vigorous, spreading, dense-topped, hardy,
productive; trunk roughish; branches dark ash-gray, smooth
except for the numerous, raised lenticels of various sizes;
branchlets medium to below in thickness, short, with internodes
of average length, greenish-red changing to brownish-red,
dull, lightly pubescent, with inconspicuous, small lenticels;
leaf-buds large, long, conical, free; leaf-scars prominent.
Leaves long-oval or obovate, two inches wide, four and
one-quarter inches long, thick, somewhat leathery; upper
surface dark green, covered with fine hairs, the midrib
grooved; lower surface silvery-green, sparingly pubescent; apex
and base acute, margin serrate, with few small, dark glands;
petiole five-eighths inch long, pubescent, tinged red, with
from one to three smallish, globose, greenish-yellow glands
variable in position.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers
appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches wide,
white, fragrant; borne on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs;
pedicels seven-eighths inch long, with short, thin pubescence,
greenish; calyx-tube green, enlarged at the base, campanulate,
lightly pubescent; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, lightly
pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals
oval, entire, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellow;
filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than
the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period of medium length; one and
one-half inches by one and three-eighths inches in size, oval,
slightly compressed, halves nearly equal; cavity shallow,
narrow, abrupt; suture shallow; apex roundish or depressed;
dull yellow, faintly splashed and streaked with green,
sometimes tinged on the sunny side with light red, overspread
with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, white, inconspicuous,
clustered about the base; stem three-quarters inch long, thinly
pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, rather sour,
separating readily; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, firm but
tender, sweet, mild, of pleasant flavor; very good; stone free,
the cavity larger than the pit, one inch by five-eighths inch
in size, oval, turgid, roundish, abruptly contracted at the
base, blunt at the apex; ventral suture broad, blunt, faintly
ridged; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.