GUEII
GUEII
Prunus domestica
1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 3rd App. 181. 1881. 2. Can. Hort. 14:293, Pl. 1891. 3. Mich. Sta. Bul. 103:34, fig. 6. 1894. 4. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:187. 1897. 5. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 120. 1898. 6. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:242, 245. 1899. 7. Ohio Sta. Bul. 113:159. 1899. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 39. 1899. 9. Waugh Plum Cult. 107. 1901. 10. Va. Sta. Bul. 134:42, 43 fig. 14. 1902.
Big Blue 1. Blue Magnum Bonum 1, 9. Bradshaw 1 incor. Geuii 3. Gueii 1. Guii 1, 6. Gweii 1.
Gueii is one of the standard plums of its season in New York, ranking among the first half-dozen in number of trees growing in the State, with many growers holding that it is the best general purpose plum of all Domesticas. The popularity of Gueii is due to its being a money-maker, as few would care to grow it for home consumption. The quality of Gueii is poor, especially for dessert, and it cannot even be called a particularly good-looking plum, though the illustration scarcely does the plum justice, especially in size. But the variety bears early and abundantly; the trees are large, vigorous, healthy and hardy and the plums are hardly surpassed for shipping, especially at the time at which the crop comes upon the market, about mid-season, the best shipping plums maturing a little later. The fruit is quite subject to brown-rot, a matter of more moment in other regions than in New York, and yet in some seasons very important in this State. The stone, curiously enough, sometimes clings rather tightly and under other conditions is wholly free. It could be wished that so popular a market plum were better in quality, but since high quality is seldom correlated in plums with fitness to ship well, it would be unfair to condemn Gueii for a market fruit because it cannot be eaten with relish out of hand.
This plum, according to all accounts, originated with a Mr. Hagaman, Lansingburgh, New York, about 1830. It was brought to notice by John Goeway (Gueii) and was soon called by his name. For years it was not much grown and it was not until 1899 that it was placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches ash-gray, roughened by longitudinal cracks and by numerous, conspicuous, raised lenticels of various sizes; branchlets thick, of medium length, with short internodes, green changing to dark brownish-drab, dull, thickly pubescent throughout the season, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds short, conical, free.
Leaves obovate or oval, one and seven-eighths inches wide, four inches long, thick; upper surface dark green, with scattering fine hairs and with a grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base variable but usually acute, margin doubly crenate, with small black glands; petiole five-eighths inch long, thick, pubescent, tinged red.