Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate, peach-like, one inch wide, three inches long, thin; upper surface smooth, with a grooved midrib; lower surface thinly pubescent on the midrib and larger veins; apex taper-pointed; base slightly acute, margin serrate or crenate, with numerous, minute, dark glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, slender, reddish, lightly pubescent, glandless or with from one to four small, globose, yellowish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season late and long; flowers appearing after the leaves, three-quarters inch across, the buds creamy when opening, changing to white, odor disagreeable; borne in thin clusters on lateral spurs and buds, singly, in pairs, or in threes; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, slightly obtuse, pubescent within, with dark colored glands and marginal hairs, erect; petals oval, entire or deeply indented, tapering below to long, narrow claws margined with few scattering hairs near the base; anthers yellow with a faint trace of red; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil slender, glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit very early, season short; one and three-sixteenths inches by one inch in size, oval, slightly compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt, regular; suture a distinct line; apex roundish or slightly pointed; color dark red, covered with thin bloom; dots very numerous, medium to large, russet, conspicuous; stem slender, seven-eighths inch long, adhering fairly well to the fruit; skin thin, tough, astringent, separating readily; flesh yellowish, the juice given off readily leaving a tough, fibrous pulp, sweet next the skin, but rather acid at the center, of pleasant flavor; fair to good; stone adhering, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, long-oval, slightly elongated at the base and apex, somewhat flattened, surface broken into irregular ridges; ventral suture blunt, faintly ridged; dorsal suture a narrow, shallow groove.
MINER
Prunus hortulana mineri
1. Horticulturist 22:332. 1867. 2. Am. Jour. Hort. 5:145. 1869. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 931. 1869. 4. Ia. Agr. Soc. Rpt. 332. 1871. 5. Gard. Mon. 13:347, 348. 1871. 6. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 152. 1873. 7. Ibid. 90. 1874. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 36. 1875. 9. Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 81. 1882. 10. Cornell Sta. Bul. 38:55, 56, 58, 81, 86. 1892. 11. Mich. Sta. Bul. 118:54. 1895. 12. Guide Prat. 163, 359. 1895. 13. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 10:99, 103. 1897. 14. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 491. 1897. 15. Colo. Sta. Bul. 50:41. 1898. 16. Waugh Plum Cult. 173. 1901. 17. Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 208. 1901. 18. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:278. 1904. 19. S. Dak. Sta. Bul. 93:25, 57 fig. 1905.
Chicasaw Chief 4, 10, 14. General Jackson 4, 10, 14. Gillett 3, 14. Hinckley 3, 6, 10, 14. Hinckley 5, 7. Isabel 3, 14. Minner 12. Old Hickory 4, 10, 14. Parsons ?10, 14, 16. Robinson 3, 14. Townsend 3, 6, 14. William Dodd 4, 10, 14.
Miner has the distinction of being the first of the native plums to be named and of being the typical plum in the sub-species to which its name has been given. Though lacking but a few years of having been in the hands of civilization a century (the Indians from whom it appears to have been taken had possibly cultivated it longer), Miner is still a standard variety and while not the best of the group of which it is the type, it is one of the best. This variety has the further distinction of being, after Wild Goose, the parent of more cultivated offspring than any other of our native plums and must be credited with having transmitted its characters, those of the tree being especially good, to a high degree. Miner is one of the parents of more than two score of named native plums in nearly all of which the resemblances to each other and to the parent are very marked. The variety is not grown, so far as is known, in New York and the trees on the grounds of this Station not being in bearing, it was impossible to illustrate the fruit in The Plums of New York though to do so was greatly desired. In the Middle West, Miner is probably as widely disseminated and as largely grown as any other plum, being particularly adapted to the northern limits of the cultivation of its species. The tree of this variety is robust, healthy, probably better in habit of growth for orchard management than any other of the native plums, and usually productive. The fruits are good in quality, attractive in appearance, comparatively curculio-proof and are especially suited for culinary uses. The variety is unproductive unless cross-fertilized.
Several accounts are given of the origin of Miner, none of which can be accurately verified at this late date. When all of the data is compared and that which is reliable is put together, the history of the variety runs about as follows: In 1813 William Dodd, an officer under General Jackson, found this plum growing in a Chicasaw Indian plantation at a place called Horse Shoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River, Alabama. The plums were so attractive in size and excellent in quality that he saved seeds of the variety and in 1814 planted them in Knox County, Tennessee. When the trees came in bearing and their merits were discovered, the new plum was at once in demand and was rather widely distributed in Knox and neighboring counties under the names “Old Hickory” and “General Jackson.” In 1823 or 1824, Dodd moved to Springfield, Illinois, taking sprouts of this plum with him. Dodd’s young trees did not thrive and he asked a brother in Tennessee who was moving to Illinois, to bring more sprouts of the new plum. The brother, instead of going to Springfield, went to Galena, Illinois, taking with him the sprouts of Old Hickory. These fell into the hands of Judge Hinckley, who distributed them among his friends, one of whom, a Mr. Townsend, propagated the variety rather extensively. At Galena, from the circumstances just noted, the variety was called “Hinckley” and “Townsend.” Meanwhile, the trees which the first Mr. Dodd had taken to Springfield came into bearing and the variety was propagated and distributed in the neighborhood as “William Dodd” and “Chicasaw Chief.” A relative of the Townsends, at Galena, took trees of this plum to Lancaster, Wisconsin, where they were propagated by a man named Joel Barber. Barber named the plum after his father-in-law, a Mr. Miner, and this name, out of the dozen or more that have been given it, is the one under which the plum is now universally known. During the process of dissemination the variety received several other local names as Isabel, Gillett, Robinson and Parsons.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, hardy at Geneva, unproductive unless cross-pollinized; branches smooth, reddish-brown, thorny; branchlets slender, long, with long internodes, greenish-red, changing to brownish-red, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, small, grayish lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, appressed.