Prunus domestica
1. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:38, Tab. 189 fig. 1. 1796. 2. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 143, 147, 152, 153. 1831. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 2:75, 100. 1832. 4. Poiteau Pom. Franc. 1. 1846. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 309. 1845. 6. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 30. 1854. 7. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 519. 1859. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 86. 1862. 9. Oberdieck Deut. Obst. Sort. 427. 1881. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 683. 1884. 11. Mas Le Verger 6:81, fig. 1866-73. 12. Cal. State Bd. Hort. 291. 1885-86. 13. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 343. 1887. 14. Cal. State Bd. Hort. 49, 50. 1887-88. 15. Ibid. 233, 235, 340. 1890. 16. Ibid. 96, 105, Pl. 1. 1891. 17. Guide Prat. 160, 353. 1895. 18. Oregon Sta. Bul. 45:24. 1897. 19. Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:191. 1897. 20. U. S. D. A. Div. Pom. Bul. 7:315, 316. Pl. IV, fig. 4. 1898. 21. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:241, 242. 1899. 22. Cal. Fr. Gr. Con. 29. 1901. 23. Waugh Plum Cult. 94, 95 fig. 1901. 24. Baltet Cult. Fr. 495, fig. 331, 506, 507, fig. 336. 1908. 25. Wickson Cal. Fruits 225. 1908. 26. Cal. Fr. Grower 40:18, 19, fig. 1909.
Agen 22. Agener Kaiserzwetsche 17. Agen Date 3. Agen Datte 5, 10. Agener Pflaume 17. Agener Pflaume 9. Agen Prune 21. California 20. California 16. D’Agen 2, 10, 11, 17, 24. D’Agen 3, 5, 8, 13, 20. D’Ast 13, 17. Date 21. Datte 17. De Brignole 17. D’Ente 13, 17, 24. D’Ente d’Agen 13. Datte Violette 1, 13, 17. Die Blaue Dattelpflaume 17. Die Blaue Dattelpflaume 1. Du Roi 17. French 20. French Prune 15, 18, 23, 25. French Prune (?) 2, 12, 14, 15, 26. Lot d’Ente 18. Petite 20. Petite d’Agen 14, 20, 26. Petite Prune 18. Petite Prune 23. Petite Prune d’Agen 25. Prune d’Agen 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 19, 25. Prune d’Agen 14, 16, 18, 23. Prune de Brignole (of some) 5, 7, 17. Prune d’Ante 3. Prune d’Ast 5, 7, 10, 11. Prune d’Ente 7, 12, 18. Prunier d’Agen 3. Prunier d’Agen 6. Prune d’Ente 22. Prune du Roi 10. Robe de Sergent 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 17, 18. Robe de Sargent 10, 12. Roi d’Agen 2. Saint Maurin 2, 4. St. Maurin 5, 7, 10, 17. Saint Mauriniana 4. Violette Dattelzwetsche 17.
Agen is the plum par excellence for prune-making in France and America. Several qualities make it admirably fit for curing into prunes. To begin with, it has a high percentage of sugars and solids so that the plum cures readily into a firm, sweet, long-keeping prune which in cooking needs comparatively little sugar; again, the trees bear regularly, abundantly and the plums are uniform in size,—productiveness, regular bearing and uniformity of size of fruit being necessary attributes of a good prune-making plum; lastly, it hangs well on the tree as it ripens and afterwards so that the curing really begins on the tree. Besides making most excellent prunes, the Agen is a very good dessert plum—one of the best—and ought to be in every home orchard and, where it attains sufficient size, in every commercial plantation. Lack of size is the defect in this variety which has kept it from being more largely grown outside of prune-making regions. If by pruning, thinning and other cultural treatment the size of the plums could be increased, the Agen should prove a valuable commercial fruit in New York.
The name of this variety is derived from Agen, a region in France where it is extensively grown. Tradition says that on their return from the Crusades, the Benedictine monks brought with them from Turkey or Persia what was then known as the Date plum and planted it in the garden of their abbey on the River Lot, in the vicinity of Bordeaux, France, and that afterwards this became the Agen. Its first recorded importation into the United States was made in 1854 by the United States Patent Office, though it was described by Prince as early as 1832. The most important introduction was made, however, in 1856, when Louis Pellier of San Jose, California, introduced Agen on the Pacific Coast, where it soon became and still is the leading plum, though with curious persistency the fruit-growers there call it the “French Prune” and the “Petite Prune.” In 1862 this variety was added to the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society. There are many strains of Agen in America, due to the numerous importations of grafts from various parts of France, where the plum orchards are frequently grown from seedlings or from sprouts; some of these strains are worthy of varietal recognition.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with numerous, large, raised lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-drab, dull, pubescent, with small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, free.
Leaves folded upward, obovate or oval, one and three-quarters inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, velvety; upper surface with few fine hairs and a narrow, grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, thickly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed, base acute, margin doubly serrate; petiole one inch long, slender, pubescent, tinged red, with two or three small, globose, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white; borne on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels five-eighths inch long, thick, glabrous except for a few short hairs, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes obtuse, somewhat pubescent within, with glandular margin, reflexed; petals broadly oval or obovate, entire, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments five-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit late, season short; one and one-half inches by one and one-eighth inches in size, obovate, the base necked, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring; suture very shallow, indistinct; apex roundish or flattened; color reddish or violet-purple, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, brown, obscure, clustered about the apex and interspersed between russet flecks; stem thick, seven-eighths inch long, glabrous, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tough; flesh greenish-yellow, tender, sweet, aromatic; very good to best; stone semi-free or free, seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, flattened, with pitted surfaces, rather abrupt at the base and apex; ventral suture somewhat narrow, furrowed, with distinct wing; dorsal suture widely grooved.