THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 345 



Shropshire originated in England, sometime in the Seventeenth Cen- 

 tury. It was noted by American writers early in the Nineteenth Century 

 and in 1875 was placed on the American Pomological Society's fruit catalog 

 list. Shropshire is a more familiar name in fruit literature than the refer- 

 ences given indicate, being found in practically every English discussion 

 of plums since 1676 and in all American notices of this fruit since Prince 

 wrote in 1832. For a fruit so long under cultivation, it has few synonyms. 



Tree large, vigorous, vasiform, hardy, productive; main branches numerous, ash- 

 gray, smooth except for numerous scars from small spur-like branches, with many, 

 small lenticels; branchlets twiggy, slender, with short internodes, green changing to 

 dark brownish-drab, dull, covered with heavy pubescence throughout the season, with 

 numerous, small lenticels; leaf -buds below medium in size, short, conical, appressed. 



Leaves flattened, obovate, about one inch wide, two inches long, thin; upper 

 surface dark green, pubescent along the grooved midrib; lower surface a paler green, 

 with thin pubescence; apex obtuse or acute, base acute, margin finely serrate, eglandular; 

 petiole one-half inch long, slender, greenish-red, with little pubescence, glandless or 

 with one or two small, globose, greenish-yellow glands usually at the base of the leaf. 



Season of bloom medium; flowers seven-eighths inch across, white; borne in 

 clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, 

 slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes 

 narrow, acute, glabrous, the margin glandular-ciliate, reflexed; petals roundish-oval, 

 entire, short-clawed; anthers yellow; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, 

 shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit late, season long; one and one-half inches by one inch in size, oval, compressed, 

 halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture an indistinct line; apex roundish; 

 color purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, russet, incon- 

 spicuous; stem slender, one-half inch long, glabrous, adhering to the fruit; skin thin, 

 tender, adhering; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, firm but tender, agreeably tart at full 

 maturity, sprightly, pleasant; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in 

 size, oval, acute at the base, blunt at the apex, with nearly smooth surfaces; ventral 

 suture broad, blunt; dorsal suture acute, with a narrow, shallow, indistinct groove. 



SIMON 



Prunus simonii 



i. Rev. Hon. in. 1872. 2. Horticulturist 27:196. 1872. 3. la. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 374, 378. 

 1881. 4. Ibid. 321. 1884. 5. Rural N. Y. 45:689 fig. 389. 1886. 6. Ibid. 46:766. 1887. 7. Ga. 

 Hort. Soc. Rpt. 53, 99. 1889. 8. Mathieu Norn. Pom. 444. 1889. 9. Col. State Bd. Hort. Rpt. 236, 

 PI. II figs, i and 2, 238. 1890. 10. Rev. Hort. 152 fig. 40. 1891. u. Penin. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 68. 

 1891. 12. Cornell Sta. Bui. 51:55. 1893. 13. Mich. Sta. Bui. 103:35. 1894. 14. Guide Prat. 164, 

 362. 1895. 15. Neb. State Hort. Soc. Rpt. ITS. 1895. 16. Kan. Sta. Bui. 73:192. 1897. 17. Vt. 

 Sta. Bui. 67:29. 1898. 18. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 41. 1899. 19. Waugh Plum Cult. 14, 38, 234. 

 1901. 



