THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 261 



trees producing the fruit were in Norfolk, whence "he obtained grafts and 

 propagated it. But its true origin was in the grounds of Mr. Poupart, 

 a market gardener at Brompton, on the spot now occupied by the lower 

 end of Queen's Gate and where it sprung up as a sucker from a tree which 

 had been planted to screen an outbuilding. It was given to Mr. Kirke 

 to be propagated and he sold it under the name it now bears." The variety 

 was introduced into America between 1830 and 1840. The American 

 Pomological Society placed Kirke upon its list of rejected fruits in 1858, 

 added it to the recommended list in 1875, and displaced it in 1899. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, productive; branchlets with long 

 internodes, dull, marked with yellowish-brown scarf-skin; leaf -buds large, long, pointed, 

 free; leaves flattened, obovate or oval, one and three-quarters inches wide, three and 

 five-eighths inches long, thick, dark green; margin crenate, eglandular or with small, 

 dark glands; petiole one inch long, tinged red, glandless or with from one to four small, 

 yellowish-green glands; blooming season intermediate, short; flowers appearing after 

 the leaves, one inch across; borne on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; filaments seven- 

 sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit mid-season, ripening period long; about one and five-eighths inches in diam- 

 eter, roundish-ovate, dark purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; flesh greenish- 

 yellow, fibrous, firm, sweet, mild and pleasant; good to very good; stone nearly free, 

 one inch by three-quarters inch in size, ovate or oval, flattened, roughened and deeply 

 pitted, tapering abruptly to a short, pointed apex; ventral suture narrow, with a short 

 but distinct wing; dorsal suture with a wide groove. 



LAFAYETTE 



Prunus domestica 



i. Prince Pom. Man. 2:96. 1832. 2. Tucker's Gen. Farmer 3:153. 1839. 3. Elliott r. 

 Book 427. 1854. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 222, 244. 1858. 5. Hogg Fruit Man. 368. 1866. 6. 

 Downing Fr. Trees Am. 916. 1869. 7. Guide Prat. 160, 359. 1895. 



Gifford's Lafayette i, 4, 6. Gifford's LaFayette 2, 3. 



Lafayette originated in New York sometime in the first quarter of 

 the last century with a Mr. Gifford from a stone of the Orleans. It did 

 not become popular and was rejected by the American Pomological Society 

 in 1858, but just why it failed is not apparent, judging either from the 

 descriptions given in the above references or by its behavior in the orchard 

 at this Station. The fruit is good, though not remarkable for the 

 richness of its flavor, its size is large and the color attractive. More- 

 over it is so late as to stand almost alone in its season. A retrial of this 

 old sort commercially might be worth while. The tree is interesting because 

 of a marked tendency in the flowers to develop petals from the stamens. 



