THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 23! 



GOLIATH 



Prunus dotnestica 



i. Prince Treat. Hort. 26. 1828. 2. Land. Hon. Soc. Cat. 147, 153- 1831. 3. Kenrick Am. 

 Orch. 260. 1832. 4. Mag. Hort. 9:164. 1843. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 300. 1845. 6. Floy- 

 Lindley Guide Orch. Card. 287, 383. 1846. 7. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 343. 1849. 8. Mclntosh 

 Bk. Card. 2:531. 1855. 9. Hooper W. Fr. Book 245. 1857. 10. Cultivator 8:25 fig. 1860. 

 ii. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 86. 1862. 12. Hogg Fruit Man. 363. 1866. 13. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:15, 

 fig. 8. 1873. 14. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 432. 1889. 15. Waugh Plum Cult. 105 fig. 1901. 



Caledonian i, 2, of some 5 & 8, n, 12, 13, 14. Emperor 9. Goliath i, 3. Goliath 9, 13. Nec- 

 tarine i, of some 2&8, H&I4 incor. Pfirschenpfiauma 14. Prune-Peche ? 14. Saint Cloud 2, 

 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14. Steer's Emperor 2. Steers' Emperor 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14. Wahre Caledonian 

 13, 14. Wilmot's Late Orleans 3, 5, 8, iz, 13, 14. 



This old English plum has never been popular in America and is now 

 scarcely known on this continent. It is a large, handsome, purple plum, 

 as the illustration well shows, but seldom fit for dessert. "Seldom fit" 

 because it is quite variable in quality in some seasons and under some 

 conditions. It is an excellent culinary plum and its firm, thick, meaty 

 flesh fits it well for shipping. On the grounds of this Station the trees 

 behave very well in all respects and usually bear very full crops of 

 plums that would tempt purchasers in any market. It has all of the char- 

 acters usually ascribed to a money-maker variety of any fruit and why 

 not more grown in commercial orchards cannot be said. 



Nothing is known of the origin of this plum except that it is English. 

 William Prince, in 1828, wrote: "This plum is of very large size, and has 

 attracted much notice in England; but it is only recently introduced 

 to this country, where it has not yet produced fruit that I am aware of." 

 The Nectarine plum was confused with the Goliath in the early part of the 

 Nineteenth Century, but Robert Thompson, 1 the English horticulturist, 

 separated them so satisfactorily that they have ever since remained dis- 

 tinct in plum literature. He found that this variety had pubescent shoots 

 and fruit -stalks, while the same parts of the Nectarine were glabrous, and 

 that the season of Goliath is considerably later. The American Pomological 

 Society placed Goliath on its fruit list in 1862, but dropped it in 1871. 



Tree large, vigorous, round-topped, dense, hardy, very productive; branches 

 stocky, with fruit-spurs numerous, ash-gray, smooth except for the large, raised lenti- 

 cels; branchlets somewhat thick, short, with internodes of medium length, green changing 

 to dull brownish-drab, heavily pubescent throughout the season, with few, inconspicuous, 

 small lenticels; leaf -buds of average size and length, conical, free. 



Leaves somewhat flattened, obovate, two inches wide, three and five-eighths inches 

 long; upper surface dark green, nearly glabrous, with a grooved midrib; lower surface 



1 Pom. Ma. 3:148. 1830. 



