Tree of medium size, round-topped, productive; leaves drooping, folded backward, narrow-obovate, two and one-quarter inches wide, four and one-half inches long, thick; margin doubly serrate, with small, yellowish glands; petiole one-half inch long, tinged red, pubescent, sometimes with two globose, yellowish-red glands usually on the stalk near the base of the leaf; blooming season early, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, fully one and one-eighth inches across, dull white; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; one and seven-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size, ovate, necked, slightly enlarged on the suture side, dark lemon-yellow, with thin bloom; dots very numerous, of medium size, white, conspicuous; stem adhering strongly to the fruit; skin tough, sour; flesh dark amber-yellow, very tender, sweet, mild; poor; stone free, one and three-eighths inches by five-eighths inch in size, long-oval, flattened, somewhat necked, acute at the apex, the surfaces smooth or partially honeycombed; ventral suture prominent.
WALES
Prunus domestica
1. Gard. Chron. 5:837. 1845. 2. Mag. Hort. 12:340. 1846. 3. McIntosh Bk. Gard. 529. 1855. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 392. 1857. 5. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 515. 1859. 6. Ann. Pom. Belge 7, Pl. 1859. 7. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:119, fig. 60. 1873. 8. Flor. & Pom. 253, Pl. 1875. 9. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 21:20. 1876. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 718. 1884. 11. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 443. 1889. 12. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 96, 120. 1896. 13. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:190. 1897. 14. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 26. 1897. 15. Ohio Sta. Bul. 113:160. 1899. 16. Waugh Plum Cult. 125. 1901.
Chapman’s Prince of Wales, 3, 5. Chapman’s Prince of Wales 4, 10, 11. Chapman’s Prince of Wales’ Plum 1. Prince Albert? 11. Prince De Galles 7. Prince De Galles 6, 11. Prince of Wales 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15. Prince of Wales 7, 11, 14, 16. Prinz Von Wales 11. Prune Prince of Whales 6.
Wales, more commonly known as the Prince of Wales, seems to have much merit yet it has long been grown in America, probably three-quarters of a century, without attaining distinction with fruit-growers. In recent years it has been favorably commented upon in a number of publications and seems to be better known and more grown than formerly. Whether this tardily-given recognition is not too late is a question. So many good plums have been introduced both at home and abroad in the last few decades that a sort dating back nearly a century must be meritorious, indeed, to stand the competition. As Wales grows in New York, it is rather too poor in quality to recommend it for a home variety and the plums are too small, as they generally grow, for a good commercial fruit. The trees are enormously productive and are very satisfactory in other characters as well. In a bulletin from the Cornell Station (References, 13) this variety is said to have “much to commend it for general favor:” while in Ohio (References, 15) it is thought that Wales “ought to become popular.”
Wales, a seedling of Orleans, was raised by a Mr. Chapman, Brentford, Middlesex, England, in 1830. It was exhibited before the London Horticultural Society in 1845 where it was awarded a prize. The following year, Hovey, the American pomologist, (References, 2) described the variety but the date of the first importation to this country is unknown. It was not until 1897 that the variety was sufficiently known to be placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree large, vigorous, slightly vasiform, open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches ash-gray, smooth except for the numerous, small, slightly raised lenticels, often marked by concentric rings; branchlets of medium thickness and length, with long internodes, green changing to brownish-red, dull, thinly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds large, long, conical or pointed; leaf-scars prominent.