THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



PRUNUS DOMESTICA Linnaeus 



I. Linnaeus Sp. PI. 475- '753- 2- Duhamel Traits des Arb. 2:93, 95, 96. 1768. 3. Seringe 

 DC. Prodr. 2:533. 1825. 4. Hooker Brit. Fl. 220. 1830. 5. London Arb. Fr. Brit. 1844. 6. De 

 Candolle Or. Cull. PL 212. 1885. 7. Schwarz Forst. Bot. 338. 1892. 8. Koch, W. Syn. Dent, und 

 Schw. Fl. 1:727. 1892. 9. Dippel Handb. Laiibh. 3:636. 1893. *<>• Lucas Handb. Obst. 429. 

 1893. II. Waugh Bo/. Cac. 26:417-27. 1898. 12. Bailey Cyc. ^m. Hort. 1448. 1901. 13. Waugh 

 Plum Cult. 14. 1901. 14. Schneider Handb. Laubh. 1:630. 1906. 



P. communis doincstica. 1$. Hudson Fl. Anglic. 212. 1778. 16. Bentham Haiidb. Brit. Fl. 

 1:236. 1865. 



P. (xconomica (in part) and P. italica (in part). 17. Borkhausen Handb. Forstb. 2:1401, 1409. 

 1803. 18. Koch, K. Dend. 1:94, 96. 1869. 19. Koehne Deut. Deiid. 316. 1893. 



Tree reaching a height of 30 or 40 feet, vigorous, open-headed, round-topped; 

 trunk attaining a foot or more in diameter; bark thick, ashy-gray with a tinge of red, 

 nearly smooth or roughened with transverse lines; branches upright or spreading, straight, 

 stout and rigid, usually spineless; branchlets usually pubescent, light red the first year, 

 becoming much darker or drab; lenticels small, raised, conspicuous, orange. 



Winter-buds large, conical, pointed, pubescent, free or appressed; leaves large, 

 ovate or obovate, elliptical or oblong-elliptical, thick and firm in texture; upper surface 

 dull green, rugose, glabrous or nearly so, the lower one paler with little or much tomentum, 

 much reticulated; margins coarsely and irregularly crenate or serrate, often doubly so, 

 teeth usually glandular; petioles a half-inch or more in length, stoutish, pubescent, 

 tinged with red; glands usually two, often lacking, sometimes several, globose, greenish- 

 yellow; stipules very small, less than a half-inch, lanceolate, narrow, serrate, early 

 caducous. 



Flowers appearing after or sometimes with the leaves, showy, an inch or more 

 across, greenish- white to creamy-white; borne on lateral spurs or sometimes from 

 lateral buds on one-year-old wood, i or 2 from a bud in a more or less fascicled umbel; 

 pedicels a half-inch or more in length, stout, green; calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous 

 or pubescent, green; calyx-lobes broadly oblong, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, 

 glandular-serrate, usually reflexed; petals white or creamy in the bud, oval to obovate, 

 crenate, notched or entire, claw short and broad; stamens about 30, equal to or shorter 

 than the petals; anthers yellow, sometimes tinged with red; pistils about as long as the 

 stamens, glabrous or pubescent. 



Fruit of various shapes, mostly globular or sulcatc, often necked, blue, red or yellow; 

 stem a half-inch or more long, stout, pubescent; cavity shallow and narrow; apex variable, 

 usually rounded; suture prominent or sometimes but a line or indistinct; skin variable; 

 dots small, numerous, inconspicuous; flesh yellowish, firm, meaty, sweet or acid and 

 of many flavors; stone free or clinging, large, oval, flattened, blunt, pointed or necked, 

 slightly roughened or pitted; walls thick; one suture ridged — the other grooved. 



Beside the comparatively well-kno^\^l groups of Domestica varieties, 

 there are in Europe, with an occasional representative in America, espe- 

 cially in herbaria, numerous other groups either a part of Prunus dcnnesttca 



