248 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



considered with the late keeping qualities of the fruit, one wishes that this 

 variety might be bred with a larger plum of better quality with the hope 

 of an offspring from the union of especial value as a late plum. 



Knight, the noted English pomologist, raised this plum from the Impera- 

 trice fertilized by Golden Drop and named it after Ickworth Park, near 

 Bury St. Edmunds. Knight aimed in raising this and other plums to pro- 

 duce a fruit containing sufficient sugar to keep well and not shrivel. In 

 Ickworth he succeeded to a high degree. 



Tree large, rather vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, productive; branches dark 

 ash-gray, roughened by the numerous, large, raised lenticels; branchlets of medium 

 thickness and length, with intemodes of average length, green changing to brownish- 

 drab, dull, lightly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels, leaf-buds 

 small, short, conical, appressed. 



Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, one and three-eighths inches wide, three 

 inches long, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, shining, pubescent only along 

 the grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, sparingly pubescent; apex abruptly 

 pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, with small dark glands; petiole one-half 

 inch long, thick, greenish, pubescent along one side, glandless or with from one to four 

 large, reniform or globose, yellowish-brown glands usually on the stalk. 



Season of bloom intermediate, long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch 

 across, white; borne in thin clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedi- 

 cels seven-sixteenths inch long, below medium in thickness, glabrous, greenish; calyx- 

 tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, lightly pubescent, with 

 few glands and marginal hairs, erect; petals roundish or roundish-oval, finely crenate, 

 tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments one-quarter inch 

 long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens. 



Fruit very late, season long; one and three-eighth inches by one and one-quarter 

 inches in size, oval or roundish-oval, sometimes slightly compressed, halves unequal; 

 cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, wide; apex one-sided, roimdish or 

 depressed; color purplish-red changing to purplish-black, mottled, overspread with 

 thick bloom, dots numerous, very small, inconspicuous, scattered between irregular 

 flecks and nettings; stem thirteen-sixteenths inch long, lightly pubescent, adhering 

 well to the fruit; skin thick, tender, adhering; flesh dull yellowish, juicy, sweet, mild, 

 pleasant; good; stone usually clinging, seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, 

 irregularly oval, flattened, faintly pitted, acute at the base, blunt at the apex; ventral 

 suture wide, heavily furrowed, swollen; dorsal suture widely and shallowly grooved. 



IMPERATRICE 



Prunus domestica 



I. Quintinye Com. Card. 67, 69. 1699. 2. Langley Pomona 95, PI. XXV fig. III. 1729. 

 3. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 105, PI. XVIII. 1768. 4. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:45, Tab. 200 fig. 2. 



