THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 235 



many growers holding that it is the best general purpose plum of all Domes- 

 ticas. The popularity of Gueii is due to its being a money-maker, as few 

 would care to grow it for home consumption. The quality of Gueii is poor, 

 especially for dessert, and it cannot even be called a particularly good- 

 looking plum, though the illustration scarcely does the plum justice, es- 

 pecially in size. But the variety bears early and abundantly; the trees 

 are large, vigorous, healthy and hardy and the plums are hardly surpassed 

 for shipping, especially at the time at which the crop comes upon the 

 market, about mid-season, the best shipping plums maturing a little later. 

 The fruit is quite subject to brown-rot, a matter of more moment in other 

 regions than in New York, and yet in some seasons very important in this 

 State. The stone, curiously enough, sometimes clings rather tightly and 

 under other conditions is wholly free. It could be wished that so popular 

 a market plum were better in quality, bu,t since high quality is seldom 

 correlated in plums with fitness to ship well, it would be unfair to condemn 

 Gueii for a market fruit because it cannot be eaten with relish out of hand. 

 This plum, according to all accounts, originated with a Mr. Hagaman, 

 Lansingburgh, New York, about 1830. It was brought to notice by John 

 Goeway (Gueii) and was soon called by his name. For years it was not 

 much grown and it was not until 1899 that it was placed on the fruit 

 catalog list of the American Pomological Society. 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches ash- 

 gray, roughened by longitudinal cracks and by numerous, conspicuous, raised lenticels of 

 various sizes; branchlets thick, of medium length, with short internodes, green changing 

 to dark brownish-drab, dull, thickly pubescent throughout the season, with numerous, 

 inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf -buds short, conical, free. 



Leaves obovate or oval, one and seven-eighths inches wide, four inches long, thick; 

 upper surface dark green, with scattering fine hairs and with a grooved midrib; lower 

 surface silvery-green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base variable 

 but usually acute, margin doubly crenate, with small black glands; petiole five-eighths 

 inch long, thick, pubescent, tinged red. 



Blooming season short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth 

 inches across, whitish; borne in clusters at the ends of spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels 

 thirteen-sixteenths inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, 

 pubescent towards the base; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, 

 glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, with very short, blunt claws; anthers 

 yellow; filaments three-eighths inch long, pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length. 



Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; medium to above in size, 

 somewhat ovate, halves equal; cavity below medium in depth and width, abrupt, rarely 

 sutured; apex bluntly pointed, color dark purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; 



