382 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Wood is one of the comparatively new Americanas and seems to have 

 considerable merit, especially for cold climates. It is attractive in color; 

 above the average size ; good in quality, though not the best of its species ; 

 and the trees in habit of growth and in productiveness are better than 

 most Americanas. It is sufficiently early to fit into the short seasons of 

 northern latitudes very well. Wood is one of the sorts that can be recom- 

 mended for the coldest parts of this State. 



This variety, according to a letter from the originator and intro- 

 ducer, Joseph Wood of Windom, Minnesota, is a seedling from a choice 

 plum fottnd growing on the bank of the Des Moines River, Cottonwood 

 County, Minnesota. It was not mentioned in pomological literature pre- 

 vious to 1894 and is of too recent origin to be widely distributed or well 

 known. 



Tree of medium size, spreading, hardy, dense-topped, an annual and abundant 

 bearer; trunk shaggy; branches roughish, thorny, zigzag, brownish ash-gray, with 

 numerous, small lenticels; branchlets slender to medium, above the average length, 

 twiggy, with short intemodes, greenish-red changing to dark brown, lightly pubescent 

 when young becoming glabrous in the fall, with numerous, conspicuous, large, much 

 raised lenticels; leaf -buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed. 



Leaves falling early, ovate, two inches wide, four inches long, thin; upper surface 

 light green, rugose, glabrous, with a narrow groove on the midrib; lower surface silvery- 

 green, pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely serrate, with long, 

 taper-pointed teeth, eglandular; petiole five-eighths inch long, slender, tinged red, 

 lightly pubescent, glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-red glands on 

 the stalk. 



Blooming season intermediate in time and length ; flowers appearing after the leaves, 

 eleven-sixteenths inch across, white; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spiu^, in 

 threes or fours; pedicels three-eighths inch long, slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube 

 greenish, narrowly campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, lightly pubes- 

 cent, occasionally tipped with red, serrate, with many marginal hairs, reflexed; petals 

 oval, notched, tapering at the base to narrow claws of medium length; anthers light 

 yellow; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens, 

 often defective. 



Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and one-quarter inches in diameter, 

 oblate, compressed, oblique, halves equal; cavity of average depth and width, flaring; 

 suture a line ; apex flattened or depressed ; color dark red over a yellow ground, mottled, 

 with thin bloom; dots numerous, minute, light russet, inconspicuous; stem one-half 

 inch long, glabrous, detaches from the fruit when ripe; skin thick, tough, sour, adhering; 

 flesh orange-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, tender and melting, sweet, lacking in flavor; 

 fair in quality; stone free, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish, 

 flattened, slightly oblique, blunt and flattened at the base, roundish at the apex, smooth; 

 ventral suture acute, not ridged; dorsal suture acute, sometimes indistinctly grooved. 



