DIAMOND
DIAMOND
Prunus domestica
1. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 146. 1831. 2. Kenrick Am. Orch. 259. 1832. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 298. 1845. 4. Lee Gen. Farmer 6:141. 1845. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 222, 244. 1858. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 696. 1884. 7. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 327. 1889. 8. Guide Prat. 159, 355. 1895. 9. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 382. 1895. 10. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:183, fig. 40 VI. 1897. 11. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 25. 1897. 12. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:214, 217. 1899. 13. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:244. 1899. 14. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 92. 1899. 15. Garden 56:168. 1899. 16. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 43:33. 1903. 17. Can. Exp. Farms Rpt. 423. 1903.
Black Diamond 9. Black Diamond 11, 13. Diamant 8. Diamantpflaume 8. Dymond 15. Kentish Diamond 17. Kingston 14 incor. Smith’s Prune 7. Smith Prune 14.
To judge Diamond by appearance would be a grievous error. It is a large, beautifully colored, well-formed plum, tempting the palate; but one taste out of hand is a sufficiency. The flesh is coarse and the flavor not at all pleasant to one accustomed to good plums. Hogg says, in the reference given, that Diamond is one of the best preserving and cooking plums but in this case we doubt Hogg’s judgment unless, as may be, Diamond is much better in England than in America. The firm flesh and tough skin of the variety commend it as a market plum and the trees are above the average in size, vigor, hardiness and productiveness—all characters excepting quality bespeaking the favor of plum-growers. It is planted largely for the markets where, of course, it sells upon its appearance.
According to Downing, this variety was raised from seed by an Englishman, in Kent, named Diamond. Kenrick and Hogg, however, state that it was raised in the nursery of a Mr. Hooker, in Kent. The London Horticultural Society briefly described this variety in its fruit catalog for 1831 so that its origin antedates that year. The American Pomological Society rejected Diamond for its catalog in 1858 but placed it in its fruit list in 1897.
Tree above average in size and vigor, upright-spreading, somewhat dense-topped, hardy, very productive; branches ash-gray, roughish, with numerous, small lenticels, the bark marked with transverse lines; branchlets of medium thickness and length, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-red, dull, somewhat pubescent, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, appressed.