SHROPSHIRE
Prunus insititia
1. Rea Flora 209. 1676. 2. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 146. 1831. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 2:90. 1832. 4. Loudon Enc. Gard. 921. 1834. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 297. 1845. 6. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 282, 383. 1846. 7. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 520. 1859. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 377. 1866. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 36. 1875. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 695. 1884. 11. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 289. 1889. 12. Am. Gard. 14:146 fig., 147, 148. 1893. 13. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:192 fig. 46. 1897. 14. Garden 53:265. 1898. 15. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:243, 247. 1899. 16. Waugh Plum Cult. 130 fig. 1901. 17. Va. Sta. Bul. 134:44. 1902. 18. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:281 fig. 1904.
Cheshire 14. Damascene 8, 10, 14. Damson Plum 3. Long Damson 2. Long Damson 7, 8, 10. Pruine Damson? 1. Prune Damson 2, 4, 5, 7, 14. Prune Damson 6, 8. Prune 10. Shropshire Damson ?6, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17. Shropshire Damson 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 18.
In America, Shropshire is probably the best known of the Damsons, being found not only in nearly all commercial plantations but in the smallest home collections as well. The qualities which make it so generally a favorite are for most part those of the tree, the French surpassing it in size and in quality of the fruit. The trees of the variety under notice are not surpassed by any other Insititia in size, vigor, hardiness and health nor are they, except in size, by any other European plum. Shropshire is enormously productive, bearing its load of fruit year after year until it is a standard among fruits for productivity and reliability in bearing. The trees have but one defect,—unless sprayed the foliage falls prey to fungi and drops early. The trees are comparatively easy to manage in such orchard operations as pruning, spraying and harvesting as they are not so thick-topped, twiggy and spiny as other Damsons. The fruit is of very good size and while in no sense a dessert plum may be eaten out of hand with relish when fully ripe or after a light frost—a point worth considering where only Damsons can be grown. It is one of the best of its kind for culinary purposes. This old variety is still to be recommended for both home and market.
Shropshire originated in England, sometime in the Seventeenth Century. It was noted by American writers early in the Nineteenth Century and in 1875 was placed on the American Pomological Society’s fruit catalog list. Shropshire is a more familiar name in fruit literature than the references given indicate, being found in practically every English discussion of plums since 1676 and in all American notices of this fruit since Prince wrote in 1832. For a fruit so long under cultivation, it has few synonyms.
Tree large, vigorous, vasiform, hardy, productive; main branches numerous, ash-gray, smooth except for numerous scars from small spur-like branches, with many, small lenticels; branchlets twiggy, slender, with short internodes, green changing to dark brownish-drab, dull, covered with heavy pubescence throughout the season, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf-buds below medium in size, short, conical, appressed.
Leaves flattened, obovate, about one inch wide, two inches long, thin; upper surface dark green, pubescent along the grooved midrib; lower surface a paler green, with thin pubescence; apex obtuse or acute, base acute, margin finely serrate, eglandular; petiole one-half inch long, slender, greenish-red, with little pubescence, glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-yellow glands usually at the base of the leaf.