THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 353 



The firmness of the fruit makes it a good shipping plum of its kind and season. 

 This variety was discovered by B. F. Stoddard of Jesup, Buchanan County, 

 Iowa, about 1875, growing in a garden owned by Mrs. Caroline Baker who 

 stated that her husband secured the trees from the woods, presumably along 

 the Maquoketa River. The variety was subsequently introduced by J. Wragg 

 and Sons of Waukee, Iowa, at dates variously reported from 1890 to 1895. 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk shaggy; branches 

 slender, thorny; branchlets slender, with conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaves 

 falling early, flattened, oval or obovate, two and one-quarter inches wide, four inches 

 long; margin coarsely serrate, eglandular; petiole tinged red, glandless or with from 

 one to three glands usually on the stalk; blooming season late; flowers appearing with 

 the leaves, one inch across, white. 



Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; about one and three- 

 eighths inches in diameter, roundish-oblate; suture a distinct red line; color light to 

 dark red over a yellow ground, mottled, covered with thick bloom; skin astringent; 

 flesh dark golden-yellow, very juicy, tender and melting, rather sweet next the skin 

 but tart near the center, with a characteristic flavor; good; stone clinging, seven- 

 eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish to broad-oval, strongly flattened, 

 with smooth surfaces; ventral suture narrow, winged. 



STONELESS 



Prunus insititia 



i. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:110, PI. 20 fig. 14. 1768. 2. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:42, Tab. 194 

 fig. 2. 1796. 3. Mag. Hort. 9:165. 1843. 4. Poiteau Pom. Franc, i. 1846. 5. Mas Pom. Gen. 

 2:121, fig. 61. 1873. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 726. 1884. 7. Mathieu Norn. Pom. 450. 1889. 



Die Pflaume ohne Stein 2. Jean Morceau 3. Kirke's Stoneless 6, 7. Pftaume Ohne Steine 5. 

 Pitless 5, 7. Prune Sans-Noyau 4. Sans-Noyau i, 5. Sans Noyau 3, 6, 7. Steinlose Zwetsche 7. 

 Stoneless 5, 7. 



This curious plum is attracting attention because of the publicity 

 given it by Burbank in his breeding work. The variety is at least three 

 hundred years old. It was known to Merlet, writing in the Seventeenth 

 Century, and has been mentioned in plum literature many times since. 

 The plum is remarkable because of the entire absence of a stone, the kernel 

 lying naked in a cavity much larger than itself. The variety is worthless 

 but presents opportunities for breeding purposes that should not be over- 

 looked. Judging from the fruit-characters as given below it belongs to 

 Prunus insititia. The Stoneless is supposed to have been introduced into 

 England from the Royal Gardens at Versailles by George London. It 

 was long sold as Kirke's Stoneless, having been much advertised by Kirke, 

 a nurseryman at Brompton, England. It is described as follows: 



