56 AG-RTOULTURA.L ExPEREVIENTT STATION-, ItHACA, N. T. 



six or seven years ago.* It had been introduced from France, where 

 it was first described under its present name and with an admirable 

 colored plate in 1872, by Carriere, in the Revue Horticole. I do not 

 know when the fruit reached Europe, but it could not have been 

 introduced long prior to 1872. It was named for Eugene Simon, who 

 sent pits to the Paris Museum while he was representing the French 

 government in China. It is probably native to China, although Hems- 

 ley, in his recent Flora of China, does not mention it; but this author 

 evidently adopts Maximowicz's opinion that it is indistinguishable from 

 the nectarine and does not regard it worth distinct discussion. It was 

 disseminated by Simon Brothers at Metz, in Alsace, and by Thibaut & 

 Keteleer, at Sceaux, France. 



Pruntis Simonii began to fruit in this country about 1885 or 1886. 

 I fruited it in 1886.f The fruit was also figured and described in 

 The Ricral New-Yorker in October, 1886. The fruit, which is shown 

 about three-fourths size in the engraving, is flattened longitudinally, 

 marked with a deep stem cavity and a very prominent suture, and is 

 borne upon a very short stem. The color is very intense and striking, 

 being a glowing dark red slightly mottled with lighter shades. The 

 flesh is yellow, hard, and clings tightly to the somewhat apricot-like pit. 

 The flavor in all the specimens which I have tested is very disagreeable, 

 being mawkish bitter, and leaving a pronounced bitter almond taste in 

 the mouth. I have never tried a specimen which I could say was edible, 

 and this is an unwilling confession because the fruit is exceedingly 

 attractive to look upon. Other persons appear to have had pleasanter 

 experience with these fruits for I occasionally read of favorable or at 

 least only indifferent comments upon their quality . But it is certainly 

 true that Prunus Simonii is not a delectable fruit in New York. It 

 is said that this bitterness passes awav in cooking, although my expe- 

 rience in this direction has not been reassuring. 



But there are other demerits in this plant besides its mawkish-bitter 

 fruits. It is not a productive tree so far as I have observed, and I 

 have seen it in many different plantations. It bears young, but the 



* The first record which I find of Frunus Simonii in America is a statement 

 in Gardener's Mo7ithly in 1881 (Vol. xxiii, 314) that "under this name Pro- 

 fessor Bessey has a pecuUar peach-like species, whicli has been found quite 

 hardy in the college grounds at Ames, Iowa." Both Professor Bessey and Pro- 

 fessor Budd disclaim having had the tree at Ames at that date. Professor 

 Budd writes me: " I first saw the tree in bearing in the valley of the Moselle in 

 1882. We introduced trees from Metz, Germany, in the spring of 1883. Its 

 main defeat is its very early blossoming and the fragile character of the 

 flower." 



t See Amer. Oard. vii . 830. 



