328 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Claude is unsurpassed. It is, however, now probably equalled in quality by 

 several of the great number of similar varieties which have originated in 

 America and for which American plum-growing is justly distinguished. 

 Under ordinary cultivation the Reine Claude is not a remarkably handsome 

 plum but when grown on thrifty trees, the crop thinned, foliage and fruit 

 kept free from pests and the fruits sufficiently exposed to the sun to color 

 well, it is a beautiful fruit, its size, form and color all adding to its beauty. 

 The tree is only of moderate size in the orchard and in the nursery is so small 

 and wayward that nurserymen hesitate to grow it. The trees, though 

 small, are productive and bear regularly, the chief defect being the sus- 

 ceptibility to sunscald whereby the bark on the trunk is killed and the 

 beginning of the end is marked. The short life of the trees of this variety 

 is largely due to this injury to the bark and has led to top-working on 

 Lombard and other stocks, an operation successful only when done early 

 in the life of the stock. Another serious fault is that the fruit cracks badly 

 if showers occur at ripening time. Reine Claude is still one of the most 

 profitable plums grown in New York and whether for the commercial or 

 home plantation deserves a place in the plum orchard. 



For a complete history of this variety the reader is referred to the 

 discussion of the Reine Claude group of plums. The Bavay, a distinct 

 variety, is called the true Reine Claude by many nurserymen and horti- 

 cultural writers. Green Gage is a synonym of the Reine Claude and is 

 preferred by some writers for this plum but since " Reine Claude " is as 

 well known and much older it has been retained in The Plums of New 

 York. The American Pomological Society placed this variety on its fruit 

 catalog list in 1852. 



Tree of medium size and vigor, round-topped, hardy, productive; trunk and 

 branches of medium thickness and smoothness; branches ash-brown, with few lenticels; 

 branchlets short, with short internodes, reddish-brown, lightly pubescent; leaf -buds 

 large, long, conical or pointed, free; leaf-scars prominent. 



Leaves four and one-half inches long, two inches wide, oval, thick, leathery; upper 

 surface dark green, smooth, covered with fine, scattering hairs; lower surface pale green, 

 pubescent; apex acute, margin often doubly crenate, glandular; petiole three-quarters 

 inch long, tinged red, glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish glands variable 

 in position. 



Fruit mid-season; one and three-quarters inches by one and five-eighths inches in 

 size, roundish-oval, halves equal; cavity narrow, regular, abrupt; suture shallow, broad; 

 apex pubescent, roundish or slightly depressed; color yellowish green, indistinctly 

 streaked with green; becoming golden-yellow at full maturity, sometimes mottled on 



