Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing with the leaves, showy on account of the numerous, pure white, flat petals, with a somewhat disagreeable odor; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in pairs; pedicels seven-sixteenths inch in length, glabrous, green with a distinct reddish tinge on one side; calyx-tube red, broadly obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, eglandular, with a hairy, serrate margin, somewhat reflexed; petals ovate, crenate, but somewhat fringed, long and narrowly clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period of medium length; about one and one-eighth inches in diameter, roundish-oval or ovate, not compressed, halves equal; cavity unusually shallow, very narrow; suture an indistinct line; apex roundish; color dull carmine, covered with thin bloom; dots numerous, gray or reddish, nearly obscure, with almost none around the base; stem slender, below medium in length; skin thick, tough, astringent, adhering; flesh pale, dull yellow, very juicy, slightly fibrous, watery and melting, sweet at first with a tart and somewhat astringent after-taste; good; stone adhering to the pulp, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, roundish-oval, flattened, smooth, blunt at the base and apex, conspicuously winged on the ventral suture, with a deep but narrow groove on the dorsal suture.
HUDSON
HUDSON
Prunus domestica
1. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 289. 1889. 2. Mich. Sta. Bul. 103:35 1894. 3. Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 30:168. 1896-97. 4. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:181 fig. 40 III, 187. 1897. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 25. 1897. 6. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 2nd Ser. 3:52. 1900. 7. Waugh Plum Cult. 109. 1901.
Hudson River Purple 6. Hudson River Purple Egg 1, 3, 4. Hudson River Purple Egg 2, 5, 7. Purple Egg 2.
Hudson is limited in cultivation, belonging almost wholly to the Hudson River Valley where it has long been somewhat of a favorite for both home and market planting. The variety has few qualities of fruit to commend it especially outside of the region where it is now grown and even here its value is probably overrated. The fruits are of only medium size, not markedly attractive in appearance and the quality is below the average among standard plums. The trees are for most part very good in constitution and habit of growth and in particular bear very well; they have the faults of not bearing early and of being subject to black-knot. The variety, and perhaps it is well, is being less planted than formerly.