AMERICA
Prunus munsoniana × Prunus triflora
1. Burbank Cat. 3. 1898 2. Vt. Sta. Bul. 67:5. 1898, 3. Rural N. Y. 59:706. 1900. 4. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 14:273. 1900. 5. Mich. Sta. Bul. 205:37 1903. 6. Del. Penin. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 36. 1905. 7. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:254, 255. 1905. 8. Ga. Sta. Bul. 68:8, 35. 1905.
America is illustrated and described in full chiefly because it is the most promising cross between Prunus munsoniana and Prunus triflora. The fruit of the variety is unusually attractive in appearance, golden-yellow with a red cheek and waxy lustre turning currant-red when ripe, ships exceptionally well and is of very good quality for cooking, but is without merit as a dessert plum. The trees are large, very vigorous, as hardy as either of its parents or possibly more so, and enormously productive. The qualities of fruit and tree are such that the variety ought to succeed in commercial plantations where any but the hardiest native plums are cultivated. America is almost phenomenally free from rot, considering its parentage.
This variety is one of Luther Burbank’s productions, grown from a seed of Robinson fertilized by pollen from Abundance. It was introduced by the originator in 1898 and has been since that time well tested at several places in the eastern states and is very generally well spoken of for a plum of its kind for the East.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, somewhat open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches roughish and with cracked bark, slightly zigzag, dark ash-gray, with numerous, conspicuously raised lenticels; branchlets willowy, long, with short internodes, green with a reddish tinge changing to dark chestnut-red, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, small, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, conical, free.
Leaves folded upward, broadly lanceolate, peach-like, one and one-half inches wide, three and one-fourth inches long, thin; upper surface reddish late in season, smooth and glossy, with deeply grooved midrib; lower surface light green, sparingly pubescent along the midrib and larger veins which are more or less red; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin finely and doubly crenate and with numerous, small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, tinged red, pubescent along one side, glandless or with one or two small globose, reddish glands on the upper part of the stalk.
Blooming season intermediate and long; flowers appearing after the leaves, one-half inch across, white; borne in clusters on short lateral spurs and buds, in pairs or in threes; pedicels five-sixteenths inch long, slender, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, with a trace of red along the margin, glandular-serrate, glabrous, with marginal hairs, erect; petals small, roundish, entire, tapering abruptly to narrow claws; anthers yellowish; filaments three-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.
Fruit early, season of medium length; one and three-eighths inches in diameter, roundish-oval, halves equal; cavity shallow, flaring; suture shallow, a distinct line; apex roundish; color clear, dark, currant-red over golden-yellow, mottled, with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, whitish, inconspicuous; stem slender, one-half inch long, glabrous, adhering to the fruit; skin thin, bitterish, separating readily from the pulp; flesh yellow, juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender, sweet, not high in flavor; fair in quality; stone clinging, seven-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, pointed, with pitted surfaces, broadly ridged along the ventral suture; dorsal suture grooved.