THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 147 



a lot of some twenty-five thousand plum seedlings was this one, bearing 

 a cruel load of enormous plums when only two years old. * * * * It 

 was at once named Apple from the very close resemblance in form, color 

 general appearance, and rare keeping qualities. * * * * Its parentage is 

 not known, except that it is a second generation seedling from cross-bred 

 seedlings, and no doubt Satsuma and probably Robinson are in its line 

 of ancestry." Satsuma characters are readily detected in tree and fruit 

 and especially its hard, red flesh, but in no way is its descent from Robinson 

 apparent. 



Tree of medium size, flat-topped, spreading, dense-topped, slow-growing, semi- 

 hardy, productive; branches rough and thorny, with numerous fruit-spurs, dark ash- 

 gray, reddish and with numerous lenticels; branchlets often with a rosette of flower- 

 buds on the apex of the shoots, slender, with short internodes, greenish-red changing 

 to dark brown, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; 

 leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, plump, appressed. 



Leaves folded upward, obovate or oblanceolate, one and one-quarter inches wide, 

 three and three-quarters inches long, thin, leathery; upper surface purplish-red late 

 in the season, glossy, glabrous, with grooved midrib; lower surface light green, pubes- 

 cent at the base of the veins; apex acutely pointed, base cuneate, margin finely and 

 doubly crenate and with small amber glands; petiole five-eighths inch long, pubescent, 

 red along one side, with from three to ten large, conspicuous, reniform, red or yellowish 

 glands on the stalk. 



Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing before the leaves, 

 white; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes or fours; pedicels medium 

 in length and thickness, glabrous; calyx-tube obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, 

 obtuse, glandular-ciliate, glabrous, erect; petals oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers 

 yellowish; filaments of medium length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens, 

 often defective. 



Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches long, one and three-quarters inches 

 wide, roundish-oblate, compressed, halves equal; cavity medium in depth and width, 

 flaring, with concentric russet rings; suture shallow; apex depressed and at one side; 

 color dull dark red, with waxy bloom; dots numerous, large, russet, conspicuous, clus- 

 tered about the apex; stem five-eighths inch long, glabrous; skin tough, bitterish, sepa- 

 rating from the pulp; flesh dark red, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, with pleasant mild 

 flavor, aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, 

 oval or obovate, turgid, pointed, roughish, winged on the ventral, deeply furrowed 

 on the dorsal suture. 



APRICOT 



Prunus domestica 



i. Parkinson Par. Ter. 578. 1629. 2. Rea Flora 209. 1676. 3. Quintinye Com. Gard. 67, 69. 

 1699. 4. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:93, PI. XIII. 1768. 5. Knoop Fructologie 2:52, 53, 54. 1771. 

 6. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:28, Tab. 173 fig. i; 2:34, Tab. 183 fig. i. 1796. 7. Prince Pom. Man. 71. 



