GEORGESON
Prunus triflora
1. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 52, 99. 1889. 2. Am. Gard. 12:308, 501, 574. 1891. 3. Ibid. 13:700. 1892. 4. Cornell Sta. Bul. 62:23, 27. 1894. 5. Tex. Sta. Bul. 32:488, 489. 1894. 6. Ga. Hart. Soc. Rpt. 94. 1895. 7. Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:51, 58. 1896. 8. Ibid. 139:40, 44. 1897. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 26. 1897. 10. Cornell Sta. Bul. 175:145. 1899. 11. Waugh Plum Cult. 136. 1901. 12. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 13. 1904. 13. Mass. Sta. An. Rpt. 17:160. 1905. 14. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:250, 254, 255, 256, 257. 1905. 15. Ga. Sta. Bul. 68:10, 30, 32, 35. 1905.
Hattonkin No. 1. 3, 4, 7. Hattankin No. 1. 5. Hattonkin 7, 11. Hattankio 7. Hattankio ?1. Hattankio No. 1. 6, 9, 12, 15. Hattonkin No. 1. 2. Mikado 10, 11, 12, 15. Normand 4, 5, 7, 8, 14. Normand Yellow 2, 3. Normand Japan 3. Normand’s Japan 4, 5. Normand Yellow 4, 5, 7. Normand ?15. White Kelsey 10, 11, 15. Yeddo 10, 11, 15.
Georgeson is not worth the trouble it has caused pomologists in straightening out its nomenclature; and Professor Georgeson deserves to have his name attached to a far better plum. The rich yellow color of the fruit makes this a particularly handsome plum, but here praises end. The flesh is so astringent and clings so tenaciously to the stone as to unfit the variety for either dessert or culinary use. Moreover, the fruits are exceedingly variable in color, size and shape, in the last character ranging from flattish to round, with sometimes round and sometimes pointed apex. The tree has too much of the sprawling habit of Burbank to make it a good orchard plant. This plum, and those that have been confused with it, can be spared without great loss to American pomology.
Georgeson was imported by H. H. Berger & Company, San Francisco, California, and brought to notice chiefly by J. L. Normand, Marksville, Louisiana, who named it for Professor C. C. Georgeson, then of Manhattan, Kansas, a student of Japanese fruits. In the Georgia Horticultural Society Report for 1889, L. A. Berckmans mentions two types of Hattankio, one of which may be this variety. Normand, in 1891, said that he received two varieties of Hattonkin from different sources and in order to separate them he numbered the earlier, No. 1, the later No. 2. Bailey and Kerr, however, in 1894, published Hattonkin No. 1 as a synonym of Georgeson and Hattonkin No. 2, the later, as a synonym of the Kerr. The Georgia Horticultural Society accepted this latter nomenclature in their report published in 1895. The Mikado, White Kelsey and Yeddo as tested by this Station have proved to be identical with Georgeson, but as tested by Kerr,[212] the Mikado alone is the same. Normand, which is said to have been imported and introduced in 1891 by J. L. Normand, is also indistinguishable from this variety. In 1897, Georgeson was placed on the American Pomological Society fruit catalog list.
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright-spreading or broad-vasiform, not always hardy, productive; branches roughish, slightly thorny, often with bark cracked longitudinally, zigzag, dark ash-gray; branchlets glabrous, with characteristic raised lenticels; leaf-scars enlarged; leaves folded upward, broadly oblanceolate or obovate, one and three-eighths inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long, thin; margin crenate or serrate, with small, amber glands; petiole five-eighths inch long, reddish, with from one to ten brownish-red glands usually on the stalk; blooming season early to medium, of average length; flowers appearing before the leaves; borne in clusters on lateral spurs, in pairs or in threes; petals pinkish at the base; anthers reddish; pistil longer than the stamens.
Fruit early, ripening period short; one and five-eighths inches in diameter, roundish-cordate; cavity deep, wide, usually with concentric, russet lines; color greenish-yellow changing to deep yellow as the fruit reaches full maturity, with thin bloom; flesh golden-yellow, fibrous, firm, sweetish except near the center; fair to good; stone clinging, five-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, turgid, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture broad, slightly ribbed; dorsal suture acute.