Tree large, vigorous, round-topped, usually hardy, productive; branches sparingly thorny, light ash-brown, smooth except for the few raised lenticels; branchlets thick, long, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dark reddish-brown, marked with scarf-skin, nearly glabrous throughout the season, with few, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical or pointed, broad at the base, appressed.
Leaves folded upward, oval, one and one-half inches wide, three inches long; upper surface lightly pubescent, with a grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex and base acute, margin crenate, with small, dark glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, thick, with a red tinge, pubescent, glandless or with from one to three conspicuous, globose, bright yellow glands variable in size, usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom intermediate, long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch across, white, the buds tinged yellow as they open; borne on lateral spurs, in twos or in threes; pedicels nearly one inch long, slender, with thin pubescence, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes small, narrow, acute, pubescent on the inner surface, erect; petals oval, entire, not clawed; anthers yellow with a tinge of red; filaments three-eighths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length, often abortive.
Fruit late, intermediate in length of ripening season; small, obovate or oval, slightly necked, truncate at the base, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture varies from shallow to deep, often prominent; apex depressed; color dull green, changing to golden-yellow, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, gray, inconspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem slender, very long, often one and one-eighth inches in length, glabrous, adhering well to the fruit; skin thick, tough, clinging slightly; flesh light golden-yellow, juicy, fibrous, sweet, mild, pleasant, not high in flavor; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, oval, flattened, slightly acute at the base and apex, with roughened surfaces; ventral suture finely grooved, blunt; dorsal suture with a wide, shallow groove.
SAINT JULIEN
Prunus insititia
1. Miller Gard. Dict. 3. 1754. 2. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 153. 1831. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 2:73. 1832. 4. Noisette Man. Comp. Jard. 2:500. 1860. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 946. 1869. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 725. 1884. 7. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 449. 1889. 8. Rev. Hort. 438. 1892. 9. Trait. Prat. Sech. Fruits 170. 1893. 10. Bot. Gaz. 26:425. 1898.
Common Saint Julian 3. Common Saint Julien 5, 7. French St. Julien 3, 5, 7. Gros Saint-Julien 3. Gros Saint-Julien 4. Kleine Blaue Julians Pflaume 7. Large Saint Julien ?3. Petit Saint Julien 4. Petit Saint Julien 3, 5, 7. Prunus Insititia var. 7. Prunus Domestica Juliana 10. Prunier Saint-Julien 8. St. Julien 6. St. Julian 3. Saint Julien 3. Saint Julien Petit ?2. Saint-Julien Petit 3, 5, 7. The St. Julian Plum 1. Weichharige Schlehen Damascene 7.
The Saint Julien plums, as we now use the name, constitute a division of Prunus insititia used as propagating stocks. Whether the name was ever applied to a specific variety can not be said. Miller, in 1754, described a “St. Julian” and gave its chief use as a stock for plums, peaches and Bruxelles Apricot. Later writers recommend them chiefly, if not only, as stocks though in France it is said the fruits are dried and sold by the pharmacists and herbalists under the name Prunus medicines (medicinal prunes). Carrière, in Revue Horticole 1892, speaks very highly of these plums as stocks and describes them as follows: