The Japanese Plums. 29 



prominently elongated and conical with a well marked suture ; 

 color deep red-purple, nearly uniformly distributed ; flesh very 

 firm and meaty, yellow, of good quality, cling; very early, ripen- 

 ing with Ogon, and extremely productive, handsome and 

 good. 



Imported by H. H. Berger & Co., San Francisco. Stark Bro^.., 

 Missouri, say that this is the most valuable early Japanese plum 

 they know, being comparatively free from rot and much earlier 

 than Abundance. The nomenclature of the variety here de- 

 scribed is much confused. H. H. Berger & Co., write me that 

 the true Japanese Red Nagate has red flesh, which this has not. 

 This is the variety to which the name Shiro Smomo is oftenest 

 applied, but it is neither a Sumomo plum nor is it white (Shiro 

 means white), thus affording a curious instance of the utter con- 

 fusion of the American application of the names of the Japanese 

 plums. Professor Georgeson tells me that the Shiro Sumomo of 

 the Japanese is a small white early plum with yellow flesh, some- 

 what cling and of medium season. I do not know if it occurs in 

 this country ; and it is probably not worth while to endeavor to 

 fit the name to any variety. The Ogon is probably the nearest to 

 it of any variety in this list. 



27. Satsuma (Blood. Yonemomo). — Size riiedium to rather 

 large, broadly conical with a blunt, short point, suture very deep; 

 color very dark and dull red all over, with greenish dots and an 

 under-color of brown-red ; flesh blood-red, rather coarse and acid, 

 fair to good in quality, tightly clinging to the pit; midseason, 

 productive. 



Imported by L,uther Burbank in 1886. Figured in Pomol- 

 ogist's Report, Rept. Dept. Agr. 1887, Plate I (colored), and 

 also in Wickson's Cahfornia Fruits, 351, the latter copied from 

 the former. I have never seen a Satsuma with such a small pit 

 as represented in these cuts, nor of the same shape. The fruit 

 appears to be uniform in shape and markings, and varies little 

 from that shown, nearly natural size, in the engraving on page 30. 

 The Satsuma is hardy in the northern states. Stark Bros., Lou- 

 isiana, Mo., write that it blooms too early with them and is not 

 so hardy as some others. This belongs to the Beni-Smomo group 

 of the Japanese, which is characterized by red flesh. One )f 



