THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



301 



is one of the best of the Americanas in both fniit and tree. The fmits 

 are large and of good shape, perhaps a httle dull in color and not quite as 

 good in quaUty as a few other Americanas but still averaging very well 

 in all fruit-characters. The flesh is very nearly free from the stone. The 

 trees are typical of the species, shaggy of trunk and limb, straggling and 

 unkempt in growth of top, but hardy, robust, healthy and reliable in 

 bearing. It would seem as if this variety is rather too good to be allowed 

 to pass out of cultivation imtil there are more Americanas that are better. 

 Oren was taken from the wild in Black Hawk Coimty, Iowa, about 

 1878, by J. K. Oren. Mr. Oren grew trees of this plum on his farm 

 and permitted all who came to take sprouts, cions and seed until the variety 

 was very generally disseminated locally. Who introduced it to the trade 

 and when is not known. 



Tree small, spreading, low, dense-topped, hardy, often unproductive; branches 

 roughish, slightly zigzag, thorny, dark ash-brown, with small lenticels; branchlets 

 slender, long, twiggy, with internodes of average length, green changing to dark chest- 

 nut-brown, glabrous, with large, conspicuous, raised lenticels; leaf -buds small, short, 

 obtuse, free. 



Leaves falling early, oval or obovate, two inches wide, three and three-quarters 

 inches long; upper surface dark green changing to golden-yellow late in the season, 

 smooth and shining, with a narrow, grooved midrib ; lower surface silvery-green, lightly 

 pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely serrate, the serrations 

 ending in sharp points, eglandular; petiole five-eighths inch long, thick, tinged red, 

 thinly pubescent, glandless or with one or two prominent, greenish-brown glands. 



Blooming season late and of medium length; flowers appearing after the leaves, 

 one and one-eighth inches across, white; borne in clusters on lateral spurs and buds, 

 in pairs or in threes; pedicels five-eighths inch long, slender, glabrous, green, tinged 

 with red; calyx-tube red, campanulate, enlarged at the base, glabrous; calyx-lobes 

 narrow, somewhat obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces and on the margin, reflexed; 

 petals ovate, somewhat crenate or fringed, tapering below to long, narrow claws, spar- 

 ingly hairy along the edge of the base; anthers yellow; filaments three-eighths inch 

 long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one and three-sixteenths 

 inches in diameter, roundish, usually truncate and slightly oblique, compressed, halves 

 equal; cavity very shallow, flaring; suture a line; apex roundish or flattened; color 

 dull light or dark red over a yellow ground, mottled, with thick bloom; dots numer- 

 ous, very small, light russet, inconspicuous; stem slender, five-eighths inch long, glab- 

 rous; skin tough, astringent, adhering; flesh dark golden-yellow, juicy, fibrous, soft and 

 melting, sweet ; fair to good ; stone semi-free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, 

 irregularly roundish or ovate, flattened, blunt at the base and apex, with smooth surfaces ; 

 ventral suture strongly winged; dorsal suture acute, with a narrow and shallow groove. 



