Four Kew Types of Fruits. 57 



fruiting is not profuse . Many of the fruits are borne upon spurs upon 

 the old wood, and they are often found well down to the base of the 

 leaf-bearing portions of the top. 



Thd two transcendent merits of the fruit of Prunus Simonii are the 

 very handsome shape and color, and its long keeping qualities conse- 

 quent upon its hard flesh. Ripe fruits will ordinarily keep a week or 

 ten days in good condition . And aside from these merits, the tree 

 appears to be as hardy as the common plums. But it blooms early 

 and is often caught by late frosts. Professor Budd recently hpeaks of 

 it as follows in Iowa: "Fruit large to very large, red in color, and is 

 shaped much like a smooth tomato. Its fault is in the way of too 

 early blossoming. It will pay to grow this fine fruit by laying down 

 in wintei', as recommended for the peach. The tree is not fully hardy 

 at Ames without winter protection.* 



The fruit of Pruntts Simonii ripens with the early peaches. In New 

 York it ripens about with the Early Rivers peach. The specimens 

 which are shown in the accompanying engraving were ripe August 24th, 

 1892. They grew upon heavy soil in western New York. The 

 fruit often drops before it is fully ripe and it frequently rots on the 

 tree. Although it is apparently less liable to attacks of curculio than 

 peaches and pkims, it is not exempt from such injury, as it is often 

 said to be. , 



Prunus Simonii is a wholy distinct species from any other stone 

 fruit. It is not a hybrid between the plum and apricot, as some have 

 supposed. Botanically, it probably belongs in the peach section of the 

 genus Prunus, although it is more plum than peach in character of 

 fruit and habit of tree. Maximowicz, a renowned Russian botanist 

 who has given much attention to the celestial floras, has saidf that it 

 is identical with the nectarine, but he certainly could not have had a 

 personal acquaintance with the plant. The flowers are shown upon the 

 title page of this bulletin. The two sprigs at the right show the 

 flowers as they appear in Maryland, being sessile and coming out some- 

 time ahead of the leaves. The left-hand sprigs show the stalked 

 flowers opening with the starting of the leaves, as they appear in New 

 York. The difference in behavior of flowers is di6erent latitudes has 

 been mentioned in my plum bulletin (Bull. 38, pp. 22, 30, 31, 37) and 

 it is now under investigation. Prunus Simonii grows well upon plum 

 stocks, upon which it is probably oftenest worked in the north. It also 

 takes upon the peach, and upon the Myrobalan and Marianna plums. 



*Exp. with New Orchard Fruits, etc., 28, in Bull. 19, Iowa Exp. Sta. (1892). 

 fBuU. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, xi, 669 (1883). 



8 



