THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



225 



variety is more like its American parent than the Asiatic one. Golden 

 can never be a money-maker in New York, but it is worth having in a 

 home orchard for its handsome appearance. 



The original tree of this variety was grown in 1887 or 1888 by Luther 

 Burbank, Santa Rosa, California, from a seed of Robinson fertilized by 

 pollen of Abundance. In 1892, the variety was erroneously described in the 

 United States Department of Agriculture Report as a seedling of Kelsey 

 fertilized by Burbank. The same year it was named Golden by Burbank 

 and in 1893 it was offered for sale in his catalog, New Creations in Fruits 

 and Flowers. Soon after, the original tree and the right of introduction 

 were purchased b}' Stark Brothers Niirseries and Orchards Company, 

 Louisiana, Missouri, and in 1894 the variety was catalogued and dissem- 

 inated under the name Gold. This name was registered as a trade-mark 

 in the United States Patent Office in 1905, but as the prior application 

 and publication of Golden entitles it to precedence according to the nomen- 

 clature of the American Pomological Society, the name Gold has generally 

 been dropped by pomologists. The confusion as to the origin and 

 nomenclature of this variety has been increased by its parentage being 

 published ' as a cross of Robinson and Kelsey and by the California shippers 

 labeling it Late Klondike. 



Tree variable in size and vigor, usually small, somewhat vasiform, medium dense, 

 hardy in all but the coldest localities, an uncertain bearer unless grown under favorable 

 conditions, when it becomes very productive, susceptible to attacks of shot-hole fungus; 

 trunk shaggy, sometimes gnarly; branches strong, unusually rough, grayish-brown, 

 with longitudinal cracks in the bark, with very numerous, small, raised lenticels; 

 branchlets willowy, numerous, long, with short intemodes, green changing to dull reddish- 

 brown, marked with gray scarf-skin, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, 

 large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, conical, free. 



Leaves usually flattened, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one inch wide by three 

 and one-half inches long, thin, somewhat rigid; upper surface light green, smooth, 

 glabrous, with deeply grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, thinly pubescent; apex 

 taper-pointed, base acute, margin serrate or crenate, with numerous, small, dark red 

 glands; petiole slender, three-eighths inch in length, tinged red, sparingly pubescent 

 along one side, glandless or with from one to seven small, globose, yellowish-green glands 

 usually on the stalk. 



Blooming season long; flowers appearing after the leaves, three-quarters inch 

 across, white; borne in clusters on short lateral spurs and buds, in pairs or in threes; 

 pedicels seven-sixteenths inch long, slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish, 



^ Cornell Sta. Bui. iof>:s2. 1896. 



