360 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, lightly pubescent, serrate, with many glands and marginal 

 hairs, reflexed; petals broadly oval, crenate, short-clawed; anthers bright yellow; 

 filaments nearly five-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, much longer 

 than the stamens. 



Fruit early, season short; one and five-eighths inches by one and three-eighths 

 inches in size, oval, swollen on the suture side, compressed, halves unequal; cavity 

 narrow, abrupt, regular; suture shallow, often an indistinct line; apex roundish; color 

 dark purplish-black, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, variable in size, russet, 

 inconspicuous; stem five-eighths inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin 

 of medium thickness and toughness, somewhat sour, separating readily; flesh greenish- 

 yellow, juicy, tender, sweet, mild; good; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch 

 in size, irregular-oval, flattened, obliquely necked; apex acute; surfaces pitted, roughish; 

 ventral suture narrow, prominent, not winged; dorsal suture narrowly and deeply 

 grooved. 



TRANSPARENT 



Prunus domestica 



I. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 395. 1857. 2 - Flor. & Pom. 56, Col. PI. fig. 1862. 3. Hogg Fruit 

 Man. 383. 1866. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 950. 1869. 5. Jour. Hort. N. S. 17:258. 1869. 

 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 91. 1869. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1871. 8. Pom. France 7:No. 25. 

 1871. 9. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:31, fig. 16. 1873. 10. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 365. 1887. n. Mathieu 

 Nom. Pom. 428. 1889. 12. Guide Prat. 154, 364. 1895. 13. Nicholson Diet. Card. 3:166. 14. 

 Waugh Plum Cult. 124. 1901. 15. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 554 fig. 1904. 



Diaphane 4, 12. Diaphane Lafay 4. Durchscheinende Reineclaude 9, 12. Durchscheinende 

 Reine-Claude n. Prune Diaphane 9. Prune Diaphane Laffay 4, n. Reine-Claude De Guigne 9. 

 Reine-Claude Diaphane i, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15. Reine-Claude Diaphane 2, 3, 4, 5, n. Reine-Claude 

 Transparente 9, n, 12, 15. Reine-Claude Transparent 4. Transparent Green Gage 6. Trans- 

 parent Gage 3, 4, 7, 8, 13. Transparent Gage 8, 9, 10, n, 12, 14, 15. Transparent Gage Plum 2, 5. 



In Europe Transparent is considered one of the best of all dessert 

 plums but either it does not do as well in America or the American bred 

 plums of the Reine Claude group, to which this variety belongs, are much 

 better on this continent than in the Old World. At any rate in our soil 

 and climate there are a dozen or more Reine Claude plums as good or 

 better in quality than Transparent and much superior in other characters. 

 It is, however, worth planting by the connoisseur for its quality and because 

 of the transparency of skin in the latter respect it is unique among Domes- 

 tica plums. The flower-buds of this variety have a remarkable tendency 

 to produce leaves in the place of floral organs. 



Transparent is an old French variety. M. Lafay, a rose-grower at 

 Bellevue, near Paris, raised it from the seed of the Reine Claude and named 

 it Reine Claude Diaphane. It was grown previous to 1836, for, during this 

 year, Thomas Rivers of England, while visiting M. Lafay, was told of 



