Bury Seedling 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16. Coe 16, 21. Coe’s 1, 2, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16. Coe Golden Drop 16, 23. Coe Golden Drop 21. Coe’s Golden Drop Plum 1, 5, 11. Coe’s Golden Drop 5, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 22, 24. Coe’s Golden Drop 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20. Coe’s Golden Drop Plum 13. Coe’s Plum 12, 13, 16. Coe (Pride) 15. Coe’s Imperial 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16. Coe’s Rothgefleckte Pflaume 13, 16. Coe’s Rotgefleckte Pflaume 15. Coe’s Plum 5. Cooper’s Large 15, 16 incor. Coe’s Seedling 3. De Coe 16. Fair’s Golden 15, 16. Fair’s Golden Drop 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16. Golden Drop 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16. Golden Drop Plum 16. Golden Gage 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16. Goutte d’Or 13. Goutte d’Or 13, 16. Goutte d’Or de Coe 15, 16. King of Plums 8. New Golden Drop 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 16. Nouvelle Goutte d’Or 15, 16. Parmentier? 15, 16. Prune Goutte d’Or De Coé 11. Semis de Bury 15, 16. Silver Prune 17, 19. Silver Prune 22. The Coe’s Plum 1. Waterloo of some 7, 8,? 14, 15.
Unfortunately this fine old plum, the largest, handsomest and best of the yellow plums, is fit only for the amateur in New York and in the hands even of the most careful of amateurs it does not reach the perfection in either appearance or quality that is expected of it in Europe or on the Pacific Coast of America. In spite of special efforts to obtain specimens for illustration which would do this variety justice, the color-plate of Golden Drop is far from satisfactory as regards either size or color of the fruit. In this region trees of Golden Drop lack constitution and while hardy in tree, the fruit-buds are often caught by the cold. From lack of vigor and from injury by freezing, the variety is not productive. The trees, too, are slow in growth and the fruit needs a long season to reach perfect maturity, often failing to ripen in parts of New York where other plums mature well. Again, the trees are subject to nearly all the ills to which plums are heir and have a somewhat precarious existence because of insects and diseases though the fruit is not as subject to brown-rot as is that of the Yellow Egg with which this variety is usually compared. Golden Drop is seemingly fit for all purposes to which plums are put—for dessert, cooking, canning, preserving and prune-making. For the last named purpose it is unsurpassed for a light colored prune of large size, readily selling at a fancy price in delicatessen stores. The fruit when carefully picked and handled keeps for a month or more, shrivelling somewhat but retaining its flavor and pleasing flesh-characters. A task for the plant-breeder is to breed a plum, of which one of the parents should be Golden Drop, which will give to this region a plum as good as the Golden Drop in regions where it is at its best. With all of its defects in the North and East, it is yet worth growing for the home and often for the late market.
Jervaise Coe, a market gardener, at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, raised Golden Drop from a seed about 1809. Lindley (References, 5) says, “He [the originator] informed me it was from the stone of Green Gage, the blossom of which, he supposed, had been fertilized by the White Magnum Bonum, the two trees of which grew nearly in contact with each other in his garden.” From a study of the fruit-characters this supposition is very probable. C. M. Hovey in discussing the synonyms of this variety writes, “The French have disseminated it considerably under the name of Waterloo; trees received under that name have fruited in our collection this year, and proved to be the Golden Drop.” Robert Hogg, in his Fruit Manual, published in 1884, described Waterloo as a separate variety, found at Waterloo, Belgium, and introduced by Dr. Van Mons; the descriptions of the two are practically identical. The Silver Prune, well known on the Pacific Coast, at one time supposed to be a new variety, turned out upon investigation to be Golden Drop, though the growers there continue to call it by the new name they have given it. The variety under discussion came to America in 1823, when Knight, of England, sent a tree of it to John Lowell of Massachusetts. In 1852, the American Pomological Society valued it sufficiently to place it on the list of the fruits worthy of general cultivation.
Tree medium to large, vigorous, spreading or roundish, open-topped, hardy, productive; branches ash-gray, roughish, with few, large lenticels; branchlets short, stout, with internodes variable in length, greenish-red changing to dull brownish-red becoming drab on the older wood, glabrous early in the season but becoming pubescent at maturity, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, free.
Leaves folded upward, oval or obovate, one and three-eighths inches wide, two and three-quarters inches long, thickish; upper surface dark green, slightly rugose, pubescent, with the midrib but faintly grooved; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin serrate, eglandular or with small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, pubescent, tinged red, with from two to three globose, greenish-yellow glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch across, white, borne in clusters on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, lightly pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, narrowly campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes obtuse, sparingly pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals oval, dentate, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit very late, season of average length; two inches by one and one-half inches in size, oval, tapering at the base to a short neck, slightly compressed, halves equal; cavity very shallow and narrow, abrupt; suture shallow and wide; apex depressed; color golden-yellow, occasionally with a faint bronze blush, showing greenish streaks and splashes before full maturity, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; stem three-quarters inch long, thinly pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin tough, rather adherent; flesh light golden-yellow, juicy, intermediate in firmness and tenderness, rather sweet, mild, pleasant flavor; good to very good; stone free, one and three-eighths inches by three-quarters inch in size, oval or ovate, slightly flattened, irregularly ridged and roughened, acute at the base and apex; ventral suture wide, often conspicuously winged; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
GOLIATH
Prunus domestica