l64 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Just why this old and one time popular jjlum is now so seldom grown 

 cannot be said. It is a delicious dessert pkim of the Reine Claude group, 

 much like Yellow Gage but distinguished from it by a longer and stouter 

 stalk. Its tree -characters in New York are good and the fruit in all the 

 Qualities that make plums desirable is as good as that of most of its class. 

 The variety originated with a Mrs. Bleeker of Albany, New York, about 

 1 8 ID from a pit given her by Rev. Mr. Dull of Kingston, New York. This 

 stone had come from Germany and was thought to have been that of a 

 German prune but this is probably an error as the seedlings of that variety 

 come true or nearly so. Bleeker was listed in the catalogs of the American 

 Pomological Society from 1852 to 1897. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk and 

 branches thick and covered with rough .bark ; branches sHghtly pubescent ; leaves two 

 and one-quarter inches wide, four inches long, oval, stiff; upper surface somewhat 

 rugose; margin serrate; petiole five-eighths inch long, thick, tinged red, with from two 

 to three glands usually on the stalk. 



Fruit early; nearly one and one-half inches in diameter, roundish-oval, greenish- 

 yellow, striped and splashed with green becoming golden-yellow at full maturity, over- 

 spread with thin bloom; flesh golden-yellow, dry, coarse, firm, sweet, mild; of good 

 quality; stone semi-clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, obovate, acute at 

 the apex, medium turgid, with pitted surfaces. 



BLUE PERDRIGON 



Primus domestica 



I. Parkinson Par. Ter. 576. 1629. 2. Rea Flora 208. 1676. 3. Ouintinye Com. Card. 67, 

 68, 6g. 1699. 4. Langley Powiojta 92, PI. 23 fig. 4. 1729. 5. Duhamel 7rai/. Arfc. Fr. 2:85. 1768. 

 6. Prince Pom. Man. 2:66. 1832. 7. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 290. 1845. 8. Floy-Lindley Guide 

 Orch. Card. 280, 293, 383. 1846. 9. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 287. 1853. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 687. 

 1884. II. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 452. 1889. 12. Guide Prat. 154, 361. 1895. 



Blue Perdrigon 6, 7, 11, 12. Brignole Violette 7, 10, 11, 12. Battle Monument 10, 11. Blaue 

 Fasanen Pflaume II, 12. Blauer Perdrigon 11, 12. Blew Perdrigon 2, 3. 4. Perdrigon i, 3, 9. 

 Perdrigon Violet 5, 12. Perdrigon Violet 6, 8, 11. Perdrigon Violette 7, 10. Perdigon S. Pcr- 

 digevena 8. Violet Perdrigon 4, 6, 7, 10, 11. Violet Perdrigon 6, 8. Violetter Perdrigon 11. 

 Violette Fasanen Pflaume 11. Violette Huhner Pflaume 11. Violette Rebhuhn Pflautne 11. Violette 

 Fasanenpflaume 12. Violette Huhner pflaume 12. Violetter Perdrigon 12. Violettes Rebhitlmerei 

 II, 12. 



Early records indicate that the Blue Perdrigon was introduced into 

 England from Italy. Hakluyt, writing in 1582, says, " Of late time the 

 Plum called the Perdigevena was procured out of Italy, with two kinds 

 more, by the Lord Cromwell, after his travel." Gough, in his British 

 Topography, states that Lord Cromwell introduced the " Perdrigon j)lum " 



