THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 277 



is above the average in size and vigor and is as hardy as any, more so than 

 most of the Reine Claude varieties. It comes in bearing early and is rather 

 productive. The place for this plum, from the summary of its characters, 

 is apparent at once — ^in the home orchard and in the collection of the fruit 

 connoisseur. 



McLaughlin was raised by James McLaughlin of Bangor, Maine, 

 first fruiting about 1840. The parentage of the variety is disputed, but 

 no one doubts that it contains Reine Claude blood, though the tree is too 

 vigorous to have been raised from the Reine Claude self -pollinated. Judging 

 from the tree-characters, it may have sprung from the Washington or Im- 

 perial Gage fertilized by the Reine Claude. The American Pomological 

 Society, in 1852, placed the McLaughlin with the plums that promised 

 well, and at the next meeting added it to the recommended list. 



Tree of medium size, variable in vigor, spreading, open-topped, hardy, medium to 

 productive; branches stocky, ash-gray, smooth, with small, indistinct lenticels; branchlets 

 few, thick, short, with short intemodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-drab, lightly 

 pubescent, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf -buds above medium in size, long, pointed, 

 appressed; leaf -scars swollen. 



Leaves oval, two inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thick; upper surface 

 dark green, glossy, covered with fine hairs; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex 

 abruptly pointed, base acute, margin crenate, with small, black glands; petiole five- 

 eighths inch long, thick, pubescent, tinged red, with one or two small, globose, yellowish 

 glands usually at the base of the leaf. 



Season of bloom intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, fifteen- 

 sixteenths inch across, white, with yellow tinge near the apex of the petals; borne on 

 lateral spurs and buds, singly or in pairs ; pedicels one-half inch long, thick, very pubes- 

 cent, greenish; caljrx-tube green, obconic, pubescent; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, 

 sparingly pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, re- 

 flexed; petals obovate, crenate, tapering below to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; 

 filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous except at the ovary, longer than the 

 stamens. 



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

 inches in size, roundish-oblate, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; 

 suture shallow; apex flattened or depressed; color greenish-yellow, blushed and mottled 

 with red, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, Ught colored; stem 

 thick, three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit, surrounded at the 

 cavity by a fleshy ring; skin tough, sUghtly adhering; flesh light yellow, juicy, sweet, 

 mild and pleasant; very good; stone clinging, one inch by three-quarters inch in size, 

 irregular broad-oval, very blunt at the base and apex, heavily wrinkled and deeply 

 pitted; ventral suture narrow, distinctly furrowed, winged; dorsal suture widely and 

 deeply grooved. 



