Tree large, very vigorous, spreading, round or flat-topped, hardy, medium in productiveness; branches stocky, smooth, dark ash-brown, with lenticels of medium number and size; branchlets thick, with internodes one inch long, light brown, covered with short, heavy pubescence; leaf-buds large, of medium length, conical.
Leaves large, oval, of average thickness; upper surface dark green; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex obtuse, margin doubly crenate, with small glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, thick, pubescent, with a trace of red, usually with two, small, globose, greenish glands at the base of the leaf.
Fruit early; thick-set, without a neck, one and seven-eighths inches in diameter, roundish, slightly angular, halves equal; cavity deep, wide, compressed; suture shallow, distinct; apex flattened or depressed; color dark purplish-red, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, large, conspicuous; stem eleven-sixteenths inch long, glabrous, adhering well to the fruit; skin tough, adhering; flesh golden-yellow, medium juicy, firm, subacid, mild; good; stone free, one inch by three-quarters inch in size, roundish-oval, flattened, with rough and pitted surfaces, blunt at the base and apex; ventral suture wide, prominent, often distinctly winged; dorsal suture with a wide, deep groove.
PEARL
PEARL
Prunus domestica
1. Burbank Cat. 5. 1898. 2. Am. Gard. 21:36. 1900. 3. Waugh Plum Cult. 118. 1901.
One can grow seedlings of some plums with considerable certainty of getting respectable offspring—plums worth having in an orchard—but the chances of growing a variety of superior qualities are small indeed. It is a piece of good luck, a matter almost wholly of luck, when, as in this case, but one parent is known, to secure as fine a fruit as the Pearl plum. The variety now under notice is one to be pleased with if it came as a chance out of thousands; its rich, golden color, large size, fine form, melting flesh and sweet, luscious flavor, place it among the best dessert plums. In the mind of the writer and of those who have assisted in describing the varieties for The Plums of New York, it is unsurpassed in quality by any other plum. The tree-characters, however, do not correspond in desirability with those of the fruits. The trees, while of medium size and seemingly as vigorous and healthy as any, are unproductive. In none of the several years they have been fruiting at this Station have they borne a large crop. If elsewhere this defect does not show, the variety becomes at once one of great value. The fruits of Pearl are said to cure into delicious prunes—to be readily believed by one who has eaten the fresh fruits. This variety ought to be very generally tried by commercial plum-growers and is recommended to all who grow fruit for pleasure.
Pearl is a recent addition to the list of plums and though its history is well known its parentage is in doubt. In 1898, Luther Burbank introduced the variety as a new prune grown from the seed of the well-known Agen. The male parent is not known but from the fruit and tree, one at once surmises that it was some variety of the Reine Claude group, its characters being so like those of the plum named that no one could suspect that it came from the seed of a plum so far removed from the Reine Claude as the Agen.