MONARCH
Prunus domestica
1. Gard. Chron. 19:815. 1883. 2. Rev. Hort. 252, Pl. 1892. 3. Guide Prat. 163, 360. 1895. 4. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:181 fig. 40 V, 189. 1897. 5. Rural N. Y. 57:670, 671 fig. 310. 1898. 6. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:242, 247. 1899. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 39. 1899. 8. Waugh Plum Cult. 116. 1901. 9. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 4:158 fig. 956. 1901. 10. Garden 62:298. 1902. 11. Gard. Chron. 36:282. 1904. 12. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:242 fig., 256, 257. 1905.
Monarque 3. Prune Monarque 2.
No plum of recent introduction has so quickly attained popularity as the Monarch. Of the great number of plums imported from the Old World, this is one of the few which has proved worthy of a place with the best American varieties for American conditions, an illustration of the importance of testing all foreign fruits. The plate shows the fruit of this variety well, though the plums look smaller in the illustration than in nature—an illusion always accompanying the reproduction in exact size of the photograph of a round object. The nicely turned form and the rich purple color of this plum make it a handsome fruit. While the quality is not of the best, Monarch ranks high among purple plums as a dessert fruit, few plums of this color being especially palatable to eat out of hand. The variety is not remarkable for any of its tree-characters, yet they average well with other plums and, with those of the fruit, make a variety quite above the average and give it a place among the best commercial sorts. Monarch is now so widely disseminated and so largely grown in New York, that we shall know shortly whether it is to hold the high place it has so quickly taken among market plums in this State.
Monarch, a seedling of the Autumn Compote, was grown by Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, England and was introduced by the originator in 1885. English publications described and figured this variety in 1883 but there are no notices of it in American pomological literature until 1897. Two years later it was placed on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society catalog and recommended for the north-eastern section of the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that the variety is relatively new, it is now offered for sale by nearly every nurseryman in this country.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy at Geneva, usually productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with small lenticels; branchlets of medium thickness and length, with internodes of average length, greenish-red, changing to brownish-drab, dull, thickly pubescent, with obscure, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, pointed, appressed; leaf-scars somewhat swollen.
Leaves broadly oval, wide, medium in length, thick, somewhat stiff; upper surface rugose, covered thinly with hairs; lower surface pubescent; apex abruptly pointed, margin serrate or crenate, eglandular; petiole short, thick, heavily pubescent, lightly tinged red, glandless or with one or two large, reniform or globose, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.