THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 159 



Tree above medium in size, vigorous, upright, open-topped, hardy, productive; 

 branches smooth, dull dark ash-gray, with small, numerous, raised lenticels; branchlets 

 thick, with short internodes, green changing to brownish-red, often marked with scarf- 

 skin, dull, very pubescent early in the season becoming less pubescent as maturity ad- 

 vances, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf -buds of medium size and length, conical, free. 



Leaves flattened or folded upward, obovate, one and seven-eighths inches wide, 

 four and one-half inches long, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, with deeply 

 grooved midrib, sparingly hairy; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex acute, base 

 cuneate, margin shallowly but broadly crenate, with few small dark glands; petiole 

 one and one-eighth inches long, thick, pubescent, tinged with light red, glandless or 

 with one or two small, globose, yellowish glands on the stalk or base of the leaf. 



Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one- 

 eighth inches across, the buds cream-tipped changing to white on expanding; borne 

 on lateral buds and spurs, usually singly; pedicels about seven-sixteenths inch long, 

 thick, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous except towards 

 the base; calyx-lobes above medium in width, obtuse, slightly pubescent on both sur- 

 faces, glandular-serrate, erect; petals broadly ovate, crenate, with short, broad claws; 

 anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the 

 stamens in length. 



Fruit late, season of medium length ; one and seven-eighths inches by one and three- 

 quarters inches in size, roundish-oval, slightly compressed, halves nearly equal; cavity 

 shallow, flaring; suture shallow, rather wide, prominent; apex roundish or depressed; 

 color light purplish-red over a greenish-yellow ground, overspread with thin bloom; 

 dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; stem one-half inch long, thickly pubescent, 

 adhering strongly to the fruit, with fleshy ring about the base; skin of average thickness 

 and toughness, sour, separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, juicy, coarse, firm, 

 sweet at the skin, but tart at the center, pleasant, aromatic; good; stone clinging, 

 one and three-sixteenths inches by three-quarters inch in size, oval, turgid, blunt at 

 the apex, with rough and pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged, with few but prom- 

 inent ridges; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved. 



BERCKMANS 



Prunus trifiora 



I. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. S3. 99- 1889. 2. Cornell Sta. Bui. 62:20. 1894. 3. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 

 95- 1895. 4- Cornell Sta. Bui. 106:43, 44. 1896. 5. Rural N. Y. 56:614. 1897. 6. Am. Pom. 

 Soc. Rpt. 26. 1897. 7. Cornell Sta. Bui. 175:138, 143. 1899. 8. Rural N. Y. 62:582. 1903. 

 g. Ga. Sta. Bui. 68:9, 28. 1905. 



Botan of some 2, 4. Botan Whife 6. Sweet Botan i. Sweet Botan 2, 3, 4. True Sweet Botan 

 2, 4, 9. White-fleshed Botan i. White-fleshed Botan 2, 4, 8, 9. 



This variety was introduced by Luther Burbank in 1887 from imported 

 stock. P. J. Berckmans' of Augusta, Georgia, who had secured some 



' Prosper Julius A. Berckmans was one of the noted horticulturists and pomologists of the 

 generation just passing. He was bom at Aerschat, near Antwerp, Belgium, October 13, 1830, 



