THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 195 



some 17, 18, 19. Perdrigon Jaune 20. Yellow Damask '14. Yellow Damask 14, 18. Yellow 

 Gage of some 5, 7. Yellow Perdrigon 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19. 



Drap d'Or represents a type of the plum hardly known in America 

 but very popular in continental Europe and most popular of all plums 

 in France, the chief plum-growing country of the Old World. It is 

 probable that the division of Prunus insititia represented by Drap d'Or, 

 the Mirabelle plums, will thrive in America as well as the commonly 

 grown Damsons of the same species. These plums certainly deserve to 

 be far more generally planted than they now are. It is certain from the 

 behavior of the few trees of the Mirabelle group now growing in New York 

 that they have very decided merit. Drap d'Or is probably not the best 

 of the yellow, sweet Insititias but it is at least well worth trial. 



According to Pomologie De La France, this variety was cited by 

 Merlet in 1675 and is of old and uncertain origin. Merlet placed the Mira- 

 belle and the Drap d'Or in the Damas class, but Poiteau thought that the 

 latter was probably a cross between Reine Claude and Mirabelle since 

 it resembled the former in quality and shape and the latter in color and 

 size. Yellow Damask, Mirabelle de Nancy, Yellow Perdrigon, Gross Mira- 

 belle and others have proved to be identical with the Drap d'Or as tested 

 in Europe. Whether all of the other synonyms mentioned are the true 

 Drap d'Or is a question ; their number indicates that there are many varia- 

 tions in this type of the plum. The American Pomological Society placed 

 Drap d'Or in its catalog list in 1875 and withdrew it in 1899. 



Tree small, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, productive; branches ash- 

 gray, with a brownish tinge, smooth, with very few, small lenticels ; branchlets of average 

 thickness and length, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, dull, sparingly pubescent 

 throughout the entire season, with few, obscure, small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium 

 size and length, conical, appressed. 



Leaves folded upward, oval, one and one-fourth inches wide, two and one-half 

 inches long; upper surface slightly roughened, covered with numerous hairs, the mid- 

 rib grooved; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex pointed or acute, base abrupt, 

 margin serrate or crenate, eglandular or with small dark glands; petiole one-half inch 

 long, pubescent, tinged red, glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish-yellow 

 glands usually on the stalk. 



Flowers fifteen-sixteenths inch across, the buds creamy changing to white when 

 expanded; borne in clusters on lateral spurs, usually in pairs; pedicels nine-sixteenths 

 inch long, sparingly pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, nearly glab- 

 rous; calyx-lobes obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, somewhat 

 reflexed; petals broadly oval, crenate or sometimes notched at the apex, tapering 



