THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 199 



3, 6, 9, II, 13, 14, 15. New Orleans 3, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16. Neu Orleans 11. Orleans 3. Prune 

 de Monsieur Hdtif '13. Prune de Monsieur Hatif 8. Prune de Monsieur Hdtive 12. Prunus damas- 

 cena domimcalis praecox 11. Prune du Roi 14. Prune du Rot 11, 13. Red Orleans 11, 13, 15. 

 WUmof s Early Orleans 4, 7. Wilmot's Early Orleans 3, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15. Wilmofs Large OrUans 

 3, 4, 6. Wilmot's Late Orleans ?7. WUmot's New Early Orleans 3, S. 6. Wilmot's New Early 

 Orleans 7. Wilmot's Orleans 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, i5- 



Early Orleans has been planted very little in America and then chiefly 

 because of its reputation in Europe. While it appears to be a very good 

 plvim in most respects as it grows on the Station groimds, being attractive 

 in appearance, of good flavor, a freestone and firm enough to ship well, 

 it svirpasses in none of these characters and the fruit is so small as to 

 make it a poor competitor among the purple plums of its season. It 

 does not deserve the reputation in America that pomologists have given 

 it in Exirope. In France the Early Orleans, tmder the name of Prune 

 du Roi, is used in pnme-maldng but it seems not to have been so used in 

 America. 



Early Orleans is old and of unknown origin. Duhamel in 1768 con- 

 sidered it a variety of the Orleans, differing only in the time of ripening 

 but there are additional differences as can be seen in the descriptions of 

 the two. It is true, however, that these two plums are very similar. 

 According to Kenrick, Wilmot's New Early Orleans was raised by John 

 Wilmot, an Englishman. Though it may be of separate origin it is prac- 

 tically identical with the Early Orleans. 



Tree small, upright-spreading, hardy, productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, 

 ■with small, inconspicuous, oval lenticels; branchlets thick, with rather short intemodes, 

 covered with thin bloom and marked with scarf-skin, dull brownish-drab, pubescent, 

 with a medium number of small, raised lenticels; leaf -buds intermediate in size and 

 length, conical, free, plump; leaf-scars enlarged. 



Leaves folded upward, two and one-quarter inches wide, four inches long, roundish- 

 oval or obovate, thick ; apex abruptly pointed, base acute, margin crenate and with 

 small, dark glands; upper surface light green, sparingly pubescent and with a grooved 

 midrib; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; petiole three-quarters inch long, thick, 

 pubescent, faintly tinged red, with from one to three large, globose glands mostly 

 on the stalk. 



Season of bloom intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, 

 nearly one-half inch across, white, the buds yellow- tipped as they unfold; borne in 

 clusters on short lateral spurs, in pairs; pedicels one-half inch long, thick, pubescent, 

 green; caljrx-tube greenish, campanulate, thinly pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, 

 glandular, pubescent on both surfaces, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, not clawed; 

 filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length. 



