THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



349 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, very productive ; trunk rather rough; 

 branches smooth, with few lenticels; branchlcts of medium thickness and length, with 

 long intemodes, green changing to dark brownish-red, covered with thin bloom, lightly 

 pubescent early in the season becoming almost glabrous at maturity, with few, small 

 lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed. 



Leaves flattened or somewhat folded backward, obovate, two inches wide, three 

 and five-eighths inches long, thick, velvety; upper surface dark green, rugose, with but 

 few hairs along the narrow, deeply grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, covered 

 with thick pubescence; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, 

 with few small, dark brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, heavily pubescent, tinged 

 red along one side, glandless or with one or two small, globose, yellow glands usually 

 at the base of the leaf. 



Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing with the leaves, one and one- 

 quarter inches across, white, with a yellow tinge; borne in clusters on lateral buds and 

 spurs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanu- 

 late, with few scattering hairs; calyx-lobes above medium in width, obtuse, sparingly 

 pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, reflexed; petals 

 broad-obovate or oval, crenate, tapering to long claws of medium width; anthers yellow, 

 filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season, one and five-eighths inches 

 by one and one-half inches in size, oval, compressed, halves somewhat unequal; cavity 

 shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture very shallow or sometimes a line; apex roundish or 

 depressed; color dark purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous 

 small, russet, inconspicuous; stem three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering to 

 the fruit; skin below medium in thickness, tender, sour, separating readily; flesh pale 

 yellow, juicy, tender, sweet, of pleasant flavor; good; stone clinging, one inch by five- 

 eighths inch in size, oval, with very rough and deeply pitted surfaces, usually somewhat 

 flattened, tapering abruptly at the base, blunt at the apex; ventral suture wide, blunt; 

 dorsal suture with a groove variable in depth and width. 



SOPHIE 



Priiniis munsoniaria 

 I. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 263, PI. VI. 1892. 2. Kerr Cat. 1894. 3. Waugh Plum Cult. 189. 1901. 



Sophie is fast being lost sight of among the multitudes of native plums 

 recently introduced. Without any very distinct merits it yet stands high 

 among plums of its kind. The variety is a seedling of Wild Goose at first 

 supposed by the originator, J. W. Kerr,' of Denton, Maryland, to have 



' J. W. Kerr, one of the best informed and most enthusiastic cultivators of native and Tri- 

 flora plums, was bom in York County, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1842. He is of Scotch-Irish 

 lineage paternally and of English ancestors maternally. His education at the village school was 

 supplemented by several years teaching and much reading and study in horticultural literature, 

 fondness for which seems to have been inborn. In his early manhood Mr. Kerr engaged in growing 



