The fruit as described by Waugh is “egg-shaped, large or very large; cavity medium shallow, abruptly rounded; suture shallow; apex pointed; color dark, dull red; dots many, small, yellowish; bloom thin, purplish; skin firm; flesh yellow inside, reddish outside; stone medium to large, flat, pointed, nearly smooth, clinging; flavor brisk subacid; quality first rate.”
ALTHAM
Prunus domestica
1. Jour. Hort. N. S. 17:228. 1869. 2. Lange Allgem. Garten. 2:419. 1879. 3. Oberdieck Deut. Obst. Sort. 432. 1881. 4. Lauche Deut. Pom. 19, Pl. IV. 1882. 5. Hogg Fruit Man. 692. 1884. 6. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 420. 1889. 7. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. 94, Pl. 1894. 8. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 550 fig. 1904. 9. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 468, fig. 1906. 10. Baltet Cult. Fr. 490, fig. 328. 1908.
Althan’s Reine Claude 6, 7. Althann’s Reine Claude 2, 3, 4, 6. Althahn’s Rote Reine-Claude 6, 7. Althann’s Reine Claude 7. Count Althann’s Gage 5. Count Althann’s Gage 6, 7. Graf Althan’s Reine-Claude 6. Graf Althann’s Reine-Claude 7. Hathen’s Red Gage 1. Reine-Claude Rouge de Hathen 1. Reine-Claude d’Althann 5, 6, 7. Reine-Claude Comte Althan 5, 6. Reine-Claude de Comte Hathem 5, 6. Reine-Claude du Comte Hathem 6, 7. Reine-Claude du Comte d’Althan 8. Reine-Claude Althan’s 5, 6, 7. Reine-Claude Comte d’Althan 6. Reine-Claude d’Althan 8. Reine-Claude d’Althan 6, 7, 10. Reine-Claude Rouge Comte Althan 6, 7. Reine-Claude Rouge du Comte Hethau 6. Reine-Claude rouge du comte Hethan 7. Reinette Claude Comte d’Althan 9. Reinette Claude d’Althan 9.
Altham is an excellent plum for dessert or home use. The color is a trifle too dull for market purposes and yet it is better colored than McLaughlin, which sells fairly well. The fruit is the type of the last named plum but is later. In Europe this variety is well known and highly esteemed for its quality, but unfortunately it is almost unknown in America. The variety is well worth trial in this country as a fine plum of the Reine Claude group. Altham is a seedling of Reine Claude, raised by Herr Prochaska, gardener to Count Michael Joseph Althann, of Swoyschitz, in Bohemia. It was noted in the English Journal of Horticulture for 1869 as a new plum sent out by Thomas Rivers.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, dense-topped, productive; leaf-scars prominent; leaves folded upward, obovate, two and one-quarter inches wide, nearly four inches long, very thick, leathery; margin doubly crenate, with few, small, dark glands; petiole thick, with from one to four globose, yellowish-green glands on the stalk; season of bloom intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch across, yellowish at the apex of the petals; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in twos.
Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches by one and five-eighths inches in size, oblate, strongly truncate at the base, compressed; color dark purplish-red over a yellow ground, covered with thick bloom; dots russet surrounded with a dark red ring; stem adhering strongly to the pulp; flesh light golden-yellow, firm but tender, sweet, mild, pleasant; very good to best; stone semi-clinging, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, flattened, irregular-oval, with pitted surfaces, contracted at the base into a short oblique neck; ventral suture prominent, heavily furrowed, often with distinct wing; dorsal suture wide, deep.
AMERICA
