Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white, with a yellow tinge at the tips of the opening buds; scattered on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-quarters inch long, above medium in thickness, finely pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, lightly pubescent, glandular-serrate, reflexed; petals obovate, crenate, with broad claws of medium length; anthers yellow with a reddish tinge; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous except on the ovary, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit late, season short; one and five-eighths inches by one and three-eighths inches in size, roundish-oval, compressed slightly, halves equal; cavity narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, often lacking; apex roundish or depressed; color bluish-black, with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, yellowish-brown, inconspicuous; stem three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin tender, somewhat astringent; flesh deep yellow, juicy, tender, sweet, of pleasant, mild flavor; good; stone semi-free, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, flattened, irregular-oval, tapering to a long, narrow neck at the base, bluntly acute at the apex, with rough and pitted surfaces; ventral suture prominent, heavily furrowed, distinctly ridged; dorsal suture acute, often with a narrow, indistinct, shallow groove.
RED APRICOT
Prunus domestica
1. Knoop Fructologie 2:52, 54. 1771. 2. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:27, Tab. 172 fig. 1. 1796. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 2:72. 1832. 4. Poiteau Pom. Franc. 1. 1846. 5. Goodrich N. Fr. Cult. 83. 1849. 6. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:127, fig. 64. 1873. 7. Hogg Fruit Man. 720. 1884. 8. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 447. 1889. 9. Lucas Vollst. Hand. Obst. 474. 1894.
Abricot Rouge 1. Abricote Rouge 3. Apricot Plum 5. Abricotée Rouge 6. Abricot Rouge 6, 7, 8. Abricotée Rouge 7, 8. Die Aprikosenpflaume 2. Fürstenzeller Pflaume 8. Fürstenzeller Reine-Claude 6. Prune d’Abricot Rouge 1, 8. Prune d’Abricos 2. Prune d’Abricot rouge 1. Prune Abricotée Rouge 4. Red Apricot Plum 3. Rothe Aprikosenpflaume 6. Red Apricot 6, 8. Rote Aprikosenpflaume 8. Rote Aprikosenzwetsche 9.
This plum, well known in Europe, is probably not now grown in America and it may not deserve recognition here except for its historical interest. Red Apricot is probably an inferior off-shoot of the Apricot plum although no definite record of its lineage is obtainable. It does not seem to have been known until nearly one hundred and fifty years after the Apricot was brought to notice. Kraft figured and described a long prune-like red plum under this name but because of its shape his plum was undoubtedly spurious. The variety was rejected by the American Pomological Society in 1856. It is described as follows:
Tree vigorous, shoots glabrous; fruit mid-season, large, roundish; color red over yellow; suture shallow; cavity small; stem an inch long, stout; flesh yellow, dryish, inferior in flavor; poor; freestone.