JEFFERSON
Prunus domestica
1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 279, 280 fig. 108. 1845, 2. Horticulturist 1:11, 93. 1846. 3. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 420. 1846. 4. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 325, 326, fig. 251. 1849. 5. Mag. Hort. 16:453 fig. 25. 1850. 6. Hovey Fr. Am. 2:1, Pl. 1851. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 54. 1852. 8. Elliott Fr. Book 411. 1854. 9. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 518, Pl. 1. 1859. 10. Mas Le Verger 6:17, Pl. 9. 1866-73. 11. Pom. France 7: No. 28. 1871. 12. Hogg Fruit Man. 707. 1884. 13. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 95, Col. Pl. 1894. 14. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:188. 1897.
Bingham incor. 2, 8. Prune Jefferson 11.
Jefferson has long been popular in America and is highly spoken of by English, French and German pomologists as well, possibly ranking highest in the Old World of all Domesticas which have had their origin in America. The popularity of the variety is waning, however, chiefly because it is lacking in the essentials demanded in a market fruit. There can be no question as to the standing of Jefferson as to quality—it is one of the best of all dessert plums. Grown under favorable conditions and when fully ripe, it is a golden-yellow with a delicate blush and bloom, large for a plum in the Reine Claude group, a well-turned oval in shape, withal one of the handsomest plums. The color-plate maker did not do it justice. It fails as a market variety because the trees are late in coming in bearing, not always certain in bearing, a little particular as to soils and not quite hardy though one of the hardiest of all Reine Claudes. Both tree and fruit are too delicate for the market-grower and the market-men. As to its value for private places and fruit connoisseurs there can be no doubt—it is one of the choicest. It would seem that there should be a place for Jefferson for the fancy trade in the markets, as it would grace the show-window of any delicatessen store; but unfortunately there are few fruit-growers in America to cater to such a trade.
Jefferson was raised by a Judge Buel, Albany, New York, about 1825. The originator presented a tree of this variety to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1829, and in 1841 trees were given to the London Horticultural Society which fruited in 1845. The parentage of the variety is unknown; Floy thought it was a seedling of Washington; Elliott suggested that it was “from a seed of Coe’s Golden Drop, which in growth and wood, it closely resembles.” In 1852, the American Pomological Society placed this variety on its catalog list of fruits worthy of general cultivation.
Tree medium to large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy at Geneva, productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with small, numerous, lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-red, dull, lightly pubescent, with inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, obovate, one and three-quarters inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long, thick; upper surface sparingly pubescent, with a grooved midrib; lower surface yellowish-green, pubescent; apex and base acute, margin serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, tinged purplish-red along one side, glandless or with from one to three small, globose, yellowish glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white; borne on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-quarters inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous, with a swollen ring at the base; calyx-lobes obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with fine marginal hairs, erect; petals roundish or obovate, dentate, tapering to very short and broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, equal to the stamens in length.