Season of bloom intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing with the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white; pedicels three-quarters inch in length, thick, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, thickly pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals oval, crenate, tapering to short and very broad claws; anthers yellow; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent, longer than the stamens.
Fruit late; two inches by one and three-quarters inches in size, roundish-oval, halves unequal; cavity deep, medium to narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, often a line; apex roundish or flattened; color dark purplish-red, often with russet flecks scattered over the surface, overspread with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, reddish-brown, conspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem thick, three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tender, slightly astringent, separating readily; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, somewhat fibrous, tender, sweet next to the skin, pleasantly tart towards the center, aromatic; good; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, long-oval, turgid, roughened and pitted, pointed at the base, blunt at the apex; ventral suture rather wide, shallowly furrowed, blunt; dorsal suture with a wide, shallow groove.
MONROE
Prunus domestica
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 189, 210. 1856. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 389. 1857. 3. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 356. 1867. 4. Barry Fr. Garden 414. 1883. 5. Guide Prat. 163, 364. 1895. 6. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:189. 1897. 7. Waugh Plum Cult. 116. 1901. 8. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:320. 1903.
Monroe Egg 1, 6. Monroe Egg 2, 7, 8. Monroe Gage 1, 2, 5, 7, 8. Monroe Gage 4. Reine-Claude de Monroe 5.
The fruit of Monroe is small and the trees produce well only in alternate years, defects that its high quality cannot overcome. Monroe originated with a Miss Durham, Penfield, Monroe County, New York, about the middle of the last century. At one time it was quoted by nearly all nurserymen but the variety is fast disappearing.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, productive; branchlets covered with fine pubescence; leaves oval, one and three-quarters inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thick, rugose; margin finely serrate; petiole tinged red, pubescent, with from one to three small glands.
Fruit matures in mid-season; one and three-eighths inches by one and one-quarter inches in size, oval, sometimes necked, golden-yellow, often mottled on the sunny side with red, overspread with thin bloom; stem adhering poorly to the fruit; flesh golden-yellow, tender, sweet, mild; of very good quality; stone semi-free or free, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, long and slightly irregular-oval, acute at the base and apex, with nearly smooth surfaces; ventral suture prominent, blunt.