Tree large, vigorous, round-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth, dark ash-gray, with numerous, small lenticels; branchlets medium to slender, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dull reddish-brown, dull, pubescent, marked with gray scarf-skin and with small lenticels; leaf-buds intermediate in size and length, conical, appressed.
Leaves flattened, oval or obovate, one and one-quarter inches wide, two and one-quarter inches long; upper surface sparingly pubescent, with a deeply grooved midrib; lower surface heavily pubescent along the midrib; apex abruptly pointed, base broadly cuneate, margin finely crenate, with small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, slender, pubescent, faintly tinged with red, glandless or with from one to four small, globose, yellowish glands usually on the stalk.
Flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch across, white; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels one-half inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube, green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, pubescent, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, erect; petals roundish or broadly ovate, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellow with a reddish tinge; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit late, season long; about one and one-half inches in diameter, roundish, slightly compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture a line; apex roundish; color dark purple, overspread with thick bloom; dots few, reddish-brown; stem three-quarters inch long, pubescent at the base, adhering well to the fruit; skin toughish, slightly astringent, separating readily; flesh golden-yellow, dry, tender, sweet, mild; fair in quality; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval, flattened, slightly roughened, blunt at the base and apex; ventral suture rather narrow, blunt; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
LAWRENCE
Prunus domestica
1. Cultivator 10:167. 1843. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 54. 1852. 3. Elliott Fr. Book 412. 1854. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 928. 1869. 5. Pom. France 7: No. 29. 1871. 6. Mas Le Verger 6:75. 1866-73. 7. Hogg Fruit Man. 710. 1884. 8. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 349. 1887. 9. Guide Prat. 364. 1895. 10. Waugh Plum Cult. 112. 1901.
Favorite de Lawrence 6, 9. Lawrence Favorite 5. Lawrences Reine Claude 9. Lawrence’s Favorite 1, 2, 3, 4, 7. Lawrence’s Gage 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9. Lawrence’s Favorite 6, 8, 9, 10. Lawrence Gage 8. Prune Lawrence Gage 5. Reine-Claude de Lawrence 6, 9. Reine-Claude de Lawrence 4, 5, 8.
This variety is surpassed in the quality of its fruits by few plums. The trees bear young and abundantly and the fruit hangs well on the tree; unfortunately, the plums do not ship nor keep well and the variety thus fails as a market sort. It is, however, a delicious dessert fruit, deserving to be grown in every plum connoisseur’s garden. Lawrence is a seedling of Reine Claude, and was grown by L. V. Lawrence of Hudson, New York, some time during the second quarter of the last century. As its large size and superior quality became known its popularity increased, until it was cultivated not only in America, but to some extent throughout western Europe. During the last twenty-five years, however, it has waned in popularity, having been superseded by better commercial varieties, though it still ranks high as a dessert plum. The American Pomological Society placed Lawrence in its catalog in 1852, and retained it there until 1899.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, productive; trunk and branches rough, with large lenticels; branchlets brash, dark reddish-brown, pubescent; leaves folded upward, oval, two inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long, thick, leathery, rugose; margin doubly serrate, with small glands; petiole pubescent, usually with two small glands.