156 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



and ships well. The flavor is not quite equal to that of Reine Claude, 

 one of the best of all plums in quality, but in tree-characters the Bavay 

 surpasses the older variety. The trees bear young, annually and heavily, 

 sometimes too heavily, and while not as hardy, as large, as robust or as 

 long-lived as could be wished, yet in these respects they are superior to 

 those of most of the varieties of Reine Claude plums. Some horticulturists 

 recommend that the Bavay be top-worked on a more vigorous, hardy and 

 longer-lived stock but the behavior of trees so treated in this vicinity 

 makes top-working a very doubtful expedient. Lombard is usually recom- 

 mended as a stock upon which to work it. Bavay is indispensable in home 

 orchards and can be recommended for much more general planting in 

 commercial orchards. 



This variety is a seedling of Reine Claude produced by Major Esperin 

 of Malines, Belgium, about 1832, and dedicated by him in 1843, to M. De 

 Bavay, Director of the Royal Nurseries, at Vilvordes, near Brussels. Though 

 this variety is distinct from its parent in tree-characters, in having a later 

 season, smaller fruit and a different flavor, the two plums have become 

 confused by many nurserymen and horticulturists. In 1856, the American 

 Pomological Society placed Bavay on its fruit catalog list where it still 

 remains. 



Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, very pro- 

 ductive, somewhat susceptible to sunscald; branches smooth except for the few, large, 

 raised lenticels, light ash-gray; branchlets medium in thickness and length, with inter- 

 nodes of variable length, dull brownish-red, pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, 

 small lenticels; leaf -buds large, long, pointed, appressed. 



Leaves folded backward, oval, or slightly obovate, wide, long, thick; upper surface 

 nearly smooth, covered sparsely with hairs; lower surface thickly pubescent, especially 

 along the midrib and larger veins; apex acute; margin crenate, glandless; petiole 

 thick, long, tinged lightly with red, glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish- 

 yellow glands on the stalk or base of the leaf. 



Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the 

 leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, whitish or creamy at the apex of the petals ; 

 borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, 

 pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, obconic, pubescent at the base; calyx-lobes rather 

 broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals broadly 

 obovate, crenate, tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments 

 three-eighths inch long; pistil pubescent on the ovary, longer than the stamens. 



Fruit late, season long; of medium size, roundish-oval, halves equal; cavity inter- 

 mediate in depth and width, abrupt; suture a line; apex roundish; color greenish- 

 yellow changing to dark straw-yellow, obscurely streaked and splashed, covered with 



