THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 249 



1796. 5. Miller Card. Diet. 3. 1807. 6. Forsyth Treat. Fr. Trees 20. 1803. 7. Pom. Mag. i: 

 33. 1828. 8. Loiui. Hon. Soc. Cat. 14S. 1831. 9. Prince Pom. Man. 2:60. 1832. 10. Dou-ning 

 Fr. Trees Am. 290. 1S45. 11. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 287, 383. :846. 12. Thomas Am. 

 Fruit Culi. 344. 1849. 13- Elliott Fr. Book 416. 1854. 14. Mcintosh Bk. Gard. 2:529. 1855. 

 15. Thompson Gard. .-^ss't 515. 1859. 16. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:101. 1873. 17. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 

 36. 1877. 18. Hogg Fruit Man. 687. 1884. 19. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 423, 452. 1889. 20. Guide 

 Prat. 161, 3S8. 1895. 



Blue Perdrigon, of some 2. Blaue Kaiserin 19. Blue Imperatrice 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 

 18. Blue Imperatrice 16, 19. Die Veischenfarbige Kaiserinnpflaume 4. Empress i. Empress 

 5, 6, 9, 18, ig. Fiirsten Zwetsche 19. Furstenzwetsche 20. Hoheitspflaume 19, 20. Imperatrice 

 Blue 8. Imperatrice 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19. Imperatrice Violette 3, 16, 20. Imperatrice 

 Violette 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19. Late Red Imperial 9. Late Violet, of some 2. Prin- 

 zessin Pflaume 19. Prune d'Altesse ? 9. Red Magnum Bonum 9. Red Imperial 9. Smith's large 

 October ? 9. The Imperatrice Plum 7. Veritable Imperatrice 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19. Violette 8, 

 10, 13, 14, 15, 19. Violette Kaiserin 19. Violette Kaiserin 16, 20. Violet Empress 9, 19. 



Imperatrice has been long known and widely grown but the variety- 

 has no especial cultural value in the United States, the fruit being too 

 small and too poor in quality. If it has any merit, it is keeping quality, 

 the fruit hanging well on the tree and keeping well, even improving after 

 picking. 



This is an old variety, well known in Austria, France and England 

 during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Like most long-known 

 varieties its nomenclature is badly confused. Writers have confounded 

 it with Semiana, the Perdrigons, German Pnme and other plums of similar 

 appearance. Duhamel regarded this variety as Perdrigon Late, holding that 

 the true Imperatrice is nearly round. Calvel, also, describes a roimdish 

 plum under this name in his Traite Complet sur les Pepinieres. It is 

 probable, however, that both Duhamel and Calvel were mistaken as all 

 other authors describe an obovate plum. This variety was introduced into 

 America early in the last century but has never become popular. It is of 

 interest, nevertheless, since it has been a leading European variety, is a 

 parent of a number of other varieties and its name is given to a group of 

 plums. The American Pomological Society added it to its fruit catalog 

 list in 1877, but dropped it in 1883. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, productive; leaves obovate or oval, two 

 and one-quarter inches wide, four and one-quarter inches long, slightly rugose; margin 

 crenate; petiole one inch long, thick, tinged red, pubescent, glandless, or with one or 

 two small glands usually at the base of the leaf. 



Fruit late; one and one-half inches by one and three-eighths inches in size, roundish 

 or ovate, purplish-black, overspread with medium thick bloom; flesh golden-yellow, 

 rather dry, firm but tender, sweet; of fair quality; stone free, one inch by three-quarters 

 inch in size, roundish-ovate, the surfaces often granular and with a reddish tinge. 



