Tree medium to large, vigorous, vasiform, dense-topped, hardy at Geneva, unproductive; branches slender, roughened by numerous spurs, sparingly thorny, dark gray, with numerous, small lenticels; branchlets sometimes swollen at the tips, of medium thickness and length, with internodes of average length, dark brown often with some green, partly overspread with gray scarf-skin, glossy, glabrous; lenticels medium in number and size, raised; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, plump, free.
Leaves few, oblanceolate, peach-like, variable in size, averaging one and one-eighth inches wide, four inches long, thin; upper surface light green, shining, glabrous, narrowly grooved along the midrib; lower surface light yellowish-green, glabrous except at the base of the veins; margin finely crenate, with small, dark amber glands; petiole one-half inch long, glandless or with from one to four globose, greenish glands on the stalk.
Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing after the leaves, thirteen-sixteenths inch across, white; borne in clusters on lateral spurs and buds, in threes or in fours; pedicels five-sixteenths inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, slightly glandular-serrate, faintly pubescent, erect; petals broadly ovate, entire, tapering below to short claws; anthers yellowish, with a little pink; filaments three-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit early, season short; one and one-quarter inches by one and three-quarters inches in size, roundish-oblate, oblique, halves equal; cavity narrow, regular, flaring; suture variable in depth, prominent; apex roundish or slightly flattened; color lemon-yellow, with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, whitish, inconspicuous; stem slender, one-half inch long, glabrous, separating readily; skin thin, tough, astringent, inclined to crack, slightly adhering; flesh pale or amber-yellow, not as juicy as many of the Trifloras, firm and meaty, sweet, mild; of fair quality; stone free, five-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, roundish-oval, turgid, blunt but with a small short tip, oblique, slightly pitted; ventral suture faintly ridged and furrowed; dorsal suture not grooved.
ORANGE
Prunus domestica
1. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 150. 1831. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 282. 1845. 3. Cole Am. Fr. Book 214. 1849. 4. Mas Le Verger 6:25. 1866-73. 5. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 442. 1889. 6. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 320. 1903.
Orange 5. Orange Gage 2, 5, 6. Pomeranzen Zwetsche 5. Wager 5, 6.
Orange belongs to the Reine Claude group. Taking its characters all in all it cannot compete with even the average varieties of the plums with which it should be compared. This variety was introduced by A. J. Downing who secured it from a Mr. Teller of Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. Although Rhinebeck is probably its place of origin, it is not likely that Teller first grew the variety since it was quite generally disseminated in that vicinity at the time of its introduction. It is fast passing from cultivation.
Tree large, vigorous, upright, productive; branches roughened by the raised lenticels; branchlets numerous, pubescent; leaves oval or slightly obovate, two inches wide, four inches long, thick; margin crenate or serrate, with small grands; petiole tinged red, pubescent, with from two to three globose glands.