Blooming season medium to late, long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-sixteenth inches across, the buds yellow-tipped changing to white when expanded, with a strong, disagreeable odor; borne in dense clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes; pedicels eleven-sixteenths inch in length, very slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes below medium in width, acute, finely pubescent on the inner surface only, somewhat reflexed, glandular-serrate, the glands numerous and dark colored; petals oval, narrow, long, crenate, tapering beneath to long, narrow claws; anthers pale yellow, with a faint reddish tinge; filaments seven-sixteenths inch in length; pistil slender, glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; about one and one-eighth inches in diameter, rather large for its class, roundish-ovate, not compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture very shallow and obscure; apex roundish or slightly conical; color garnet-red, with thin bloom; dots numerous, variable in size, grayish-yellow, conspicuous, clustered around the apex; stem slender, about three-eighths inch in length, glabrous, parting readily from the fruit; skin thin, slightly astringent, adhering but little; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, tender and somewhat melting, very sweet next the skin but tart toward the center, aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, oval, somewhat oblique, turgid, roughish; ventral suture narrow, strongly winged; dorsal suture acute, unfurrowed.
DRAP D’OR
DRAP D’OR
Prunus insititia
1. Quintinye Com. Gard. 2:69. 1699. 2. Langley Pomona 94, 97, Pl. 24 fig. 5. 1729. 3. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:96. 1768. 4. Knoop Fructologie 57. 1771. 5. Coxe Cult. Fr. Trees 233 fig. 2. 1817. 6. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 146. 1831. 7. Prince Pom. Man. 2:75. 1832. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 261. 1832. 9. Mag. Hort. 9:163. 1843. 10. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 274. 1845. 11. Poiteau Pom. Franc. 1:1846. 12. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 297, 383. 1846. 13. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 516. 1859. 14. Hogg Fruit Man. 359, 371, 387. 1866. 15. Pom. France 7: No. 12. 1871. 16. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 36. 1875. 17. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 350. 1887. 18. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 428. 1889. 19. Guide Prat. 153, 359. 1895. 20. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 538 fig. 1904. 21. Baltet Cult. Fr. 489, 503. 1908.
Cloth of Gold 2, 5, 7, 12, 14, 18, 19. Cloth of Gold Plum 15. Damas Jaune 15, 18, 19. Doppelte Mirabelle 18. Drap d’Or 1, 2. Drap d’Or Pflaume 15. Drap d’Or 7, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21. Double Drap d’Or 17. Double Mirabelle 17. Glauzende gelbe Mirabelle 15. Glänzende Gelbe Mirabelle 18, 19. Gold Pflaume 18. Goldfarbige Pflaume 15, 18, 19. Goldstoff 18. Goldzeng 18. Grosse Mirabelle ?7, 15, 18, 19, 21. Grosse Mirabelle 8, 21. Grosse Mirabelle Drap d’Or 18, 19. Mirabelle 15, 17. Mirabelle Double 19, 21. Mirabelle Double 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18. Mirabelle Double de Metz 20. Mirabelle de Nancy 19, 21. Mirabelle de Nancy 14, 18. Mirabelle Drap d’Or 15, 18, 19. Mirabellen 15. Mirabelle grosse double de Metz 15, 18, 19. Mirabelle Grosse de Nancy 20. Mirabelle Grosse 15, 17, 20, 21. Mirabelle la grosse 7, 15, 18, 19. Mirabelle Grosse 6, ?7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19. Mirabelle Perlée 15, 18, 19. Mirabelle von Metz 15. Perdrigon Hâtif 15, 20, of some 17, 18, 19. Perdrigon Jaune 20. Yellow Damask ?14. Yellow Damask 14, 18. Yellow Gage of some 5, 7. Yellow Perdrigon 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19.
Drap d’Or represents a type of the plum hardly known in America but very popular in continental Europe and most popular of all plums in France, the chief plum-growing country of the Old World. It is probable that the division of Prunus insititia represented by Drap d’Or, the Mirabelle plums, will thrive in America as well as the commonly grown Damsons of the same species. These plums certainly deserve to be far more generally planted than they now are. It is certain from the behavior of the few trees of the Mirabelle group now growing in New York that they have very decided merit. Drap d’Or is probably not the best of the yellow, sweet Insititias but it is at least well worth trial.
According to Pomologie De La France, this variety was cited by Merlet in 1675 and is of old and uncertain origin. Merlet placed the Mirabelle and the Drap d’Or in the Damas class, but Poiteau thought that the latter was probably a cross between Reine Claude and Mirabelle since it resembled the former in quality and shape and the latter in color and size. Yellow Damask, Mirabelle de Nancy, Yellow Perdrigon, Gross Mirabelle and others have proved to be identical with the Drap d’Or as tested in Europe. Whether all of the other synonyms mentioned are the true Drap d’Or is a question; their number indicates that there are many variations in this type of the plum. The American Pomological Society placed Drap d’Or in its catalog list in 1875 and withdrew it in 1899.