99 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 361 



cavity, from which it extends to the protruding apex; surface smooth, 

 covered with loose, soft, velvety down; color creamy white, marbled, 

 splashed and dotted with crimson; skin moderately thick, tenacious; 

 flesh whitish, distinctly stained with red near the skin, firm and meaty, 

 but juicy; stone oval, of medium size, adherent; flavor subacid; 

 quality good to very good. Season, very early, May 15 to June 1, 

 practically with Alexander in northeastern Texas. Leaf glands reni- 

 form; blossoms very large and red. 



The variety has already been considerably planted in commercial 

 orchards in eastern Texas, and while less precocious than some sorts, 

 is considered sufficiently productive for a commercial variety. 



The specimen illustrated on Plate XXVIII was grown by E. W. 

 Kirkpatrick, at McKinney, Tex. 



BANNER GRAPE. 



[PLATE XXIX.] 



This very promising variety for the Southwest is said by its 

 originator, Mr. Joseph Bachman, Altus, Ark., to have been grown 

 in 1898 from seed of Lindley crossed with Delaware. It would 

 appear from the vigor and productiveness of the vine and the large 

 size of the cluster, however, that some other variety, probably one 

 of his other seedlings that stood near by, was concerned in the cross, 

 And the originator appears to incline to this opinion, as he states 

 that the Lindley blossoms were not protected from other pollen at 

 the time of pollination with Delaware. 



The original vine bore a crop of twelve clusters in its third year, 

 1901. Two of these were exhibited by the originator at the Pan- 

 American Exposition in that year under the name Banner, which 

 the late Judge Samuel Miller published for the variety in a commu- 

 nication in Column's Rural World for September 18, 1901. The 

 variety was first propagated in 1902, and was experimentally dis- 

 seminated in the spring of 1906. So far as known, it has not yet 

 been fruited elsewhere than on the grounds of the originator. It was 

 commercially introduced in 1906 by the Stark Brothers Nurseries 

 and Orchards Company under the name Banner, which when printed 

 in a certain arbitrary typographical form was registered by them as 

 a trade-mark in the United States Patent Office, May 1, 1906. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Cluster large, broad conical, heavily shouldered, very compact; 

 stem short; berries globular, of medium size, adhering tenaciously 

 to the small green peduncles; skin moderately thick, and rather 



tough; amber red and glossy, but covered with a profuse bloom; flesh 



. . 



a Letters of Joseph Bachman, August and September, 1906, and January, 1907. 



