Abundance 7. Babcock (?) 15, 17. Babcock 12, 16, 18. Botan 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10. Botan 12, 16, 18. Botankio 12. Botankio 3. Burbank No. 2, 11, 12. Chase 12. Chase 14, 15, 17. Douglas 9, 15, 18. Douglas 17. Hattankio 8, 15. Hattonkin 12. Hytankayo 8, 9. Munson 8. Munson 9, 18. Oriole 22. Sweet Botan 7. Sweet Botan 15. Yellow Fleshed Botan 3, 6, 8, 17, 23. Yellow Fleshed Botan 5. Yellow Japan 12. Yellow Japan 8, 14.
Though Abundance has been in America only a quarter of a century, it is now about as well known as any other plum, being probably the best known of the Triflora plums. The two chief assets which have given the variety its great popularity so quickly are adaptability to a wide diversity of soils and climates and, as its name implies, abundance of fruit, for it bears not only heavily but yearly. As a market plum Abundance has been overplanted since it ships and keeps poorly, is much subject to brown-rot, matures unevenly and drops rather too readily as it ripens. Whether for market or home use, the fruit of this variety should be picked before it is quite ripe as it develops in flavor best when so picked and the dropping and rot are thus avoided to some extent. It is an exceedingly variable plum and undoubtedly several well marked strains could be selected, some of which are not as hardy or otherwise as valuable as others. While Abundance has passed the heyday of its popularity it is still one of the most desirable of the Triflora plums.
This variety was imported from Japan by Luther Burbank in 1884, and was introduced by John T. Lovett, Little Silver, New Jersey, under the name Abundance, in 1888. A large number of Japanese plums that have since been introduced have proved to be either identical or so nearly like the Abundance that much confusion has arisen. Abundance was first known as Botan, but that name was dropped as it refers to a group of plums in Japan rather than to a variety. Babcock, which is said to have been imported by Burbank in 1885 and named for Colonel E. F. Babcock, a nurseryman of Little Rock, Arkansas, has been described by Bailey as indistinguishable from Abundance. Botankio, described in the Georgia Horticultural Society Report for 1889, proved to be the Abundance as tested at the Cornell Experiment Station. The Chase plum, also disseminated in New York under the name Yellow Japan, was bought by the R. G. Chase Company, Geneva, New York, for the Abundance, but as it was thought to blossom and fruit later than that variety, it was distributed as a new plum; in 1897 Bailey considered it the same as Chabot, but in 1899 he stated that it and Abundance were identical. The Douglas plum is also identical. Dr. J. T. Whitaker of Tyler, Texas, imported this variety and introduced it in 1886 under the name of Hytankayo. Bailey, who tested Whitaker’s variety from trees obtained from T. V. Munson, Denison, Texas, found a yellow-fruited strain and to distinguish the purple form named the latter Munson.[202] As this name had been applied to a native plum, R. H. Price, of the Texas Experiment Station, in 1894 renamed the variety calling it Douglas.[203] There have been two types of this Douglas plum disseminated; Bailey, in 1899, found no difference between it and Abundance except that the Douglas seemed to have a little drier flesh; others testing Douglas found it to be identical with the Chabot. Burbank No. 2, imported by Luther Burbank in 1885 and introduced by him in 1889, is very similar if not identical with the Abundance. Oriole, recently introduced by the Texas Nursery Company, Sherman, Texas, is so nearly like Abundance as to be unworthy of a separate name. The American Pomological Society added Abundance to its fruit catalog list in 1897.
Tree large, vigorous, vasiform, open-topped, hardy in New York, very productive, susceptible to attacks of shot-hole fungus; branches rough, dark ash-gray, inclined to split when overloaded, with few, slightly raised lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with short internodes, red early in the season changing to dark brown, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, conical, plump, free.
Leaves folded upward, narrow-obovate or oblanceolate, peach-like, one and three-eighths inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, thin; upper surface light green, smooth, glabrous, with grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent on the midrib and larger veins; apex taper-pointed, base cuneate, margin very finely serrate, with small, brownish glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, slightly pubescent along one side, reddish, glandless or with from one to five small, globose, green or reddish glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season early; flowers appearing with the leaves, medium in size; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in pairs or in threes; pedicels of medium length and thickness, slightly pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, with ciliate margins, glabrous, erect; petals broadly oval, entire, abruptly clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments of average length; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit early, season short; one and three-eighths inches in diameter, roundish-ovate, halves nearly equal, slightly compressed; cavity medium in depth and width, abrupt, regular; suture shallow, distinct; apex pointed; color pinkish-red changing to darker red, mottled, with thin bloom; dots numerous, of medium size, russet, conspicuous; stem one-half inch long, glabrous, parting easily from the fruit; skin thin, tough, bitterish, separating readily; flesh yellow, very juicy, tender and melting, sweet except next to the pit, pleasantly aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, oval, somewhat compressed, pointed, rough, ridged along the ventral suture; dorsal suture grooved.
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