VARIETIES OF PLUMS 379 



ance and sweet and pleasant in flavor. The trees are small but 

 vigorous and healthy. Mirabelle was first noted by pomological 

 writers of the seventeenth century. 



Tree small, round, open-topped, hardy. Fruit midseason; 1 inch in 

 diameter, round-oval, necked, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, 

 abrupt; suture indistinct; apex depressed, color light golden-yellow, with 

 thick bloom; dots numerous, small, white; stem slender, % inch long, 

 pubescent, parting readily from the fruit; skin thin, tough; flesh light 

 yellow, firm, tender, sweet, mild; good to very good; stone free, oval, blunt, 

 broadly ridged along one edge, rough. 



DIVISION B. FRUITS CHERRY RED OR YELLOW, 

 NOT PURPLE 



Section III. Fruits More or Less Cordate. 

 (Japanese Plums) 



Group 6. Fruits Yellow 



585. Ogon is one of the few varieties of P. salicina bearing 

 yellow fruits. It is further distinguished by being the only 

 freestone sort of its species under cultivation in America, and 

 by fruits having a flavor quite distinct, resembling that of the 

 apricot. The plums are not of high quality, crack badly on the 

 tree, and are unusually susceptible to the attacks of curculio. 

 The trees are small and unproductive. These faults preclude the 

 growing of Ogon in commercial plantations. Ogon was imported 

 from Japan about 1885. 



Tree medium, vigorous, vasiform, dense-topped, unproductive. Fruit 

 early; l^^ by 1% inches in size, round-oblate, oblique, halves equal; cavity 

 narrow, regular, flaring ; suture variable in depth, prominent ; apex round- 

 ish or slightly flattened; color lemon -yellow, with thin bloom; dots numer- 

 ous, small, white, inconspicuous ; stem slender, i/o inch long, glabrous, sepa- 

 rating readily ; skin thin, rough, astringent, inclined to crack, adhering ; 

 flesh pale or amber-yellow, firm, sweet, mild; of fair quality; stone free, 

 round-oval, turgid, blunt but with a small short tip, oblique, slightly pitted. 



Group 7. Fruits Red 

 Sub-group 4. Flesh Red 



586. Satsuma. — There is a group of several varieties of Japa- 

 nese plums unique in having deep red flesh. While the fruit is 



