Fruit very early, season short; one and three-quarters inches in diameter, cordate or roundish, slightly compressed, halves unequal; cavity deep, abrupt, regular, marked with faint, reddish, radiating streaks; suture deep, broad; apex pointed; color dark red, mottled; bloom of medium thickness; dots numerous, variable in size, russet, conspicuous, clustered about the base; stem thick, nine-sixteenths inch long, glabrous, parting readily from the fruit; skin thick, bitter, with a tendency to crack, separating easily from the pulp only when fully ripe; flesh yellowish, very juicy, somewhat fibrous, tender and melting, sweet, pleasant flavored, aromatic; good; stone adhering, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, somewhat long-oval, pointed, roughish, conspicuously winged and grooved on the ventral suture; dorsal suture slightly grooved.
CLING STEM
Prunus domestica
1. N. Y. Sta. Rpt. 9:347. 1890.
This plum belongs to the Reine Claude group, a group in which there is room for new varieties only at the top. Cling Stem is inferior, falling short chiefly in quality, for a plum of its type, and it is doubtful if it is worth general planting. This Station alone seems to have tested the variety, hence the rather full description which follows of a plum which cannot be recommended. The variety was sent here in 1890 from North Ferrisburg, Vermont, by L. M. Macomber.
Tree large and vigorous, spreading, dense-topped, very productive; branches rough, the bark marked by concentric rings, with numerous spurs and with many, small, raised lenticels; branchlets short, pubescent; leaf-scars swollen; leaves folded upward, oval, one and three-quarters inches wide, three inches long, rather thick and leathery; margin doubly crenate, eglandular or with small, dark glands; petiole pubescent, tinged red, glandless or with from one to three globose glands usually at the base of the leaf; blooming season of medium length; flowers over one inch across, white with yellowish tinge near the apex of the petals; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs.
Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches by one and five-eighths inches in size, nearly roundish, dull light yellow, sometimes mottled with red on the exposed cheek, overspread with thin bloom; skin thin, sour; flesh greenish-yellow, tender and melting, sweet near the surface but acid at the center, mild, pleasant, but not high-flavored; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, nearly round, turgid; surfaces pitted; ventral suture broad, heavily furrowed, with a short, distinct wing.
CLYMAN
Prunus domestica
1. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 574. 1888. 2. Cal. State Board Hort. 236, 239, Pl. II figs. 3 and 4. 1890. 3. Wickson Cal. Fruits 358. 1891. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 25. 1897. 5. N. Mex. Sta. Bul. 27:124. 1898. 6. Ohio Sta. Bul. 113:158. 1899. 7. Waugh Plum Cult. 98. 1901. 8. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:236, 237 fig., 254, 255. 1905.