THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 65 



red blotches or as thick layers when the bark is sectioned, these deposits, especially in 

 quantity, characterizing the species; branches very spreading and open, twiggy, slender, 

 thorny; branchlets light green at first, becoming reddish-brown, glabrous and glossy; 

 lenticels few, large, very coarse, raised, characteristic of the species. 



Winter-buds plump, very small, obtuse, appressed; leaves one and three-quarters 

 inches wide to five inches in length, long-oval with a tapering, pointed, acuminate 

 apex, peach-like, base abrupt, texture thin, becoming leathery, margins serrate, almost 

 crenate, sometimes in a double series, glandular; upper surface smooth, glossy, glabrous; 

 lower surface light green, almost glabrous except on ribs and veins which are very 

 pubescent, with characteristic orange color, midrib grooved above, rounded below, 

 very prominent; petioles slender, an inch in length, pubescent on the upper side, tinged 

 with red; glands two to eight, small, globose, mostly on the petioles. 



Flowers expanding after the leaves, blooming later than any other cultivated plum, 

 three-quarters inch across ; odor disagreeable ; clusters borne from lateral buds on one- 

 year-old wood only, characterizing the species, the fruit-spurs making a very long 

 growth, more like branches than the spurs of other species, two to six flowers from a 

 bud; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender, glabrous; calyx-tube narrow, 

 campanulate, glabrous, green; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, glandular-serrate, glands red, 

 slightly pubescent on the inner side, erect; petals ovate, slightly crenate, dentate at 

 the apex, tapering into long narrow claws; stamens about twenty in number, yellow; 

 pistils glabrous, equal to or shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit very late in ripening; globose, oval, an inch in diameter; color varying from 

 shades of red to shades of yellow; bloom inconspicuous or lacking; dots numerous, 

 small, conspicuous; suture very shallow or only a line; skin thick, tough, astringent; 

 flesh golden-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, firm, flavor mildly sweet, astringent at the 

 pit, strongly aromatic; quality fair; stone clinging to the flesh, turgid, long-oval, small, 

 prolonged at the ends, the surfaces rough and reticulated. 



Prunus hortulana as established by Bailey, to quote a part of the 

 original description, " includes a large class of plums represented by Golden 

 Beauty, Cumberland, Garfield, Sucker State, Honey Drop, probably Wild 

 Goose and others." Unfortunately Bailey later added ' a number of other 

 plums to the group which the above varieties and some ten or fifteen 

 others comprise, the additions in themselves constituting at least three 

 somewhat distinct groups, and then to account for this omnibus species 

 called it a " brood of natural hybrids." Waugh supports Bailey's con- 

 clusions 2 and divides the species into four groups of hybrids the Miner 

 group, the Wild Goose group and the Schley or Clifford group. These, 

 Waugh says, " form an unbroken series from Prunus americana to Prunus 

 angustifolia." The fourth of Waugh's groups, "comparatively distinct 



1 Bat. Gaz. 24:462. 1896; Cornell Sta. Bui. 170. 1897; Ev. Nat. Fruits 194-208. 1898. 

 * Gar. and For. 10:340, 350. 1897. Plum Cult. 60-66. 1901. 



