348 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



SMITH ORLEANS 



Prunus domestica 



X. Prince Treat. Hort. 21. 1828. 2. Prince Pom. Man. 2:68. 1832. 3. Mag. Hort. 9:410. 1843. 

 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 304, 305 fig. 125. 1845. 5. Mag. Hort. 14:152, 153 fig. 16. 1848. 6. 

 Cole Am. Fr. Book 214 fig. 1849. 7- Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 343. 1849. 8 Elliott Fr. Book 

 424. 1854. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 210. 1856. 10. Hooper W. Fr. Book 252. 1857. n. Hogg 

 Fruit Man. 382. 1866. 12. Mathieu Norn. Pom. 450. 1889. 13. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rft. 52. 1895. 

 14. Cornell Sta. Bui. 131:192. 1897. 



Cooper's 5. Cooper's Large 5. Cooper's Large Red 5. Cooper's Red 6. Duane's Purple 3 

 incor. La Delicieuse 8. Large Orleans 3. Large Purple 3 incor. Monsieur de Smith 12. Purple 

 Magnum Bonum 3. Red Magnum Bonum incor. 3, 4, 5, 6, 12. Smith's large Orleans 2. Smith's 

 Orleans i, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, n, 13, 14. Smith's Orleans 5, 12. Smith's Orleans Pflaume 12. 

 Smith's Herrn Pflaume 12. Violet Perdrigon incor. 3, 4, 5, 6, 12. Violetter Perdrigon 12 incor. 



In the middle of the last century, Smith Orleans was considered about 

 the best plum of its color in America. But the fruit is not high in quality, 

 the texture of the flesh is coarse and it ripens at a time when fruits are 

 plentiful, for which reasons it has ceased to be regarded with favor by 

 either the amateur or the professional fruit -grower. The trees, however, 

 seem to have some remarkably desirable characters and it may be that 

 the variety should be retained for some locations and purposes and to 

 breed from, at least. If the older pomologists have written truly few 

 plums are adapted to a greater range of climates and soils than this one; 

 so, too, the trees are usually spoken of as of large size, vigorous, healthy, 

 of great productiveness and as holding the crop well. The trees in the 

 soil and climate of this Station are quite as the older writers describe them 

 and were the fruit only better in quality and somewhat more attractive 

 in appearance, the variety could be highly recommended for a market 

 plum and as a fruit for culinary purposes in the home orchard. 



William Prince, in 1828, in his Treatise on Horticulture, briefly described 

 Smith Orleans, and seventeen years later A. J. Downing gave a short history 

 of the variety. It is a seedling of the Orleans raised about 1825 by a Mr. 

 Smith of Gowanus, Long Island, New York. By an error the variety was 

 sent out as the Violet, or Blue Perdrigon, a smaller and very different 

 fruit. Charles M. Hovey of Massachusetts, who secured trees of the Cooper 

 from Prince, about 1831, believed this variety to be identical with the 

 Smith Orleans in all characters. Downing could not agree with him but 

 the present writers find that the two varieties are so much alike that it 

 is impossible to distinguish between them. As is suggested under Cooper, 

 they may be identical or they may have come true to seed irom the same 

 parent. The American Pomological Society recommended this plum for 

 general cultivation in 1856. 



