THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 383 



WORLD BEATER 



Prunus hortulana 



I. Cornell Sta. Bui. 38:52. 1892. 2. Wis. Sta. Bui. 63:65. 1897. 3. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. 

 Rpi. 41:54. 1896. 4. Waugh Plum Cult. 182. 1901. 



World Beater is very similar to Wayland, differing chiefly in being 

 a week earlier and, as the color-plate shows, the plums are a little smaller 

 and more oval. In tree-characters, as the two grow at this Station, World 

 Beater is perhaps the better plum. This variety has the same place in 

 pomology as Wayland, a place which it fills possibly a little better. It 

 may be recommended for culinary purposes and as a late plum for regions 

 where the peach is hardy. Plums of this species have small value in New 

 York except for the sake of variety. 



World Beater was grown from a seed of a plum found near Nash- 

 ville, Tennessee, in 1838, by J. H. Tinsley and planted in Lincoln Cotinty, 

 Kentucky. About ten years later trees of the variety were taken to Clay 

 Cotinty, Missouri, and were further propagated but the variety remained 

 practically unknown until the fall of 1890 when it was introduced by 

 Stark Brothers of Missouri. 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open and flat-topped, hardy where the peach can 

 be grown, productive; branches rough and shaggy, somewhat thorny, dark ash-gray, 

 with numerous, large lenticels; branchlets medium to above in thickness and length, 

 twiggy, with intemodes of average length, green changing to dark chestnut-red, glossy, 

 glabrous, with few, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf -buds very small and short, 

 obtuse, plump, appressed. 



Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one and three-quarters 

 inches wide, four and one-half inches long, thin; upper surface smooth, glossy, with a 

 shallow groove on the midrib; lower surface pubescent on the midrib and larger veins; 

 apex acuminate, base abrupt, margin serrate, glandular; petiole one inch long, slender, 

 tinged red, pubescent on one side, with from two to six small, globose, brownish glands 

 scattered on the stalk or base of the leaf. 



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

 inch across, white, with a disagreeable odor; borne in clusters from lateral buds, in 

 twos, threes or fours; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender, glabrous, green; 

 calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acuminate, slightly 

 pubescent towards the base of the inner surface, serrate and with reddish glands, erect; 

 petals ovate, crenate, fringed, with pubescent claws of medium width; anthers yellowish; 

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



Fruit very late, season short; one inch by seven-eighths inch in size, roundish-ovate 

 or oval, not compressed, halves equal; cavity n.arrow, shallow, rather abrupt; suture a 



