ROCKPORT

Prunus avium

Rockport is of very doubtful commercial value and has too many faults to be included with the best sweet sorts for a home orchard. It is more easily characterized by its faults than its merits. Compared with the well-known Yellow Spanish, of which it is a seedling and to which it is similar, the cherries are smaller and the pits are larger than those of the parent variety,—quite too large for the amount of pulp. Worst of the faults of the variety is, however, that the cherries are not sufficiently firm of flesh to withstand harvesting, shipping and the attacks of the brown-rot fungus. To offset the defects of the fruit the flesh is rich, sweet and tender, making it, all in all, as good as any other Sweet Cherry for dessert. The trees, too, are very satisfactory, being large, vigorous and very fruitful, though with the reputation of requiring good soil and the best of care, of lacking a little in hardiness to cold, and of having the period of maturing the crop more or less changed by soil and culture. Rockport has been, and is, more or less popular in New York but it can be recommended only for a home orchard.

Rockport is another of Professor Kirtland's introductions, having been raised by him at Cleveland, Ohio, about 1842, from a seed of Yellow Spanish. It soon won a place, in 1862, on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society where it still remains. It is mentioned by several foreign authors and many American nurserymen offer it for sale. Swedish is given as a synonym of Rockport by Hooper.

ROCKPORT

Tree large, vigorous, upright, very productive; trunk somewhat slender, roughish; branches smooth, reddish-brown, with numerous small lenticels; branchlets stout, variable in length, with long internodes, brown almost entirely overspread with ash-gray, smooth, with conspicuous, raised lenticels.

Leaves numerous, three and one-half inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded upward, long-oval to obovate; upper surface dark green, somewhat rugose; lower surface dull, light green, pubescent along the veins; apex acute to taper-pointed, base abrupt; margin coarsely serrate, glandular; petiole two inches long, tinged with red, with a few hairs on the upper surface, glandless or with from one to four large, reniform, reddish glands variable in position.

Buds large, long, pointed, plump, free, arranged singly and in clusters from lateral buds and short spurs; leaf-scars prominent; season of bloom intermediate; flowers white, one and one-fourth inches across; borne in clusters usually in twos; pedicels one inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, dentate at the apex, nearly sessile; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens, often defective.

Fruit matures early; one inch in diameter, cordate to conical, compressed; cavity shallow, wide, flaring, regular; suture a distinct line; apex roundish, with a small depression at the center; color bright red over an amber-yellow background, mottled; dots very numerous, small, light yellowish, somewhat conspicuous; stem one and one-half inches long, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tender; flesh pale yellowish-white, with colorless juice, tender, somewhat melting, aromatic, mild, sweet; good to very good in quality; stone free, ovate, plump, with smooth surfaces.