The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

In his catalog for 1898 Burbank announces the Apple as a new plum and says, “Among the welcome surprises found three years ago among a lot of some twenty-five thousand plum seedlings was this one, bearing a cruel load of enormous plums when only two years old.... It was at once named Apple from the very close resemblance in form, color general appearance, and rare keeping qualities.... Its parentage is not known, except that it is a second generation seedling from cross-bred seedlings, and no doubt Satsuma and probably Robinson are in its line of ancestry.” Satsuma characters are readily detected in tree and fruit and especially its hard, red flesh, but in no way is its descent from Robinson apparent.

Tree of medium size, flat-topped, spreading, dense-topped, slow-growing, semi-hardy, productive; branches rough and thorny, with numerous fruit-spurs, dark ash-gray, reddish and with numerous lenticels; branchlets often with a rosette of flower-buds on the apex of the shoots, slender, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brown, glossy, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, plump, appressed.

Leaves folded upward, obovate or oblanceolate, one and one-quarter inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long, thin, leathery; upper surface purplish-red late in the season, glossy, glabrous, with grooved midrib; lower surface light green, pubescent at the base of the veins; apex acutely pointed, base cuneate, margin finely and doubly crenate and with small amber glands; petiole five-eighths inch long, pubescent, red along one side, with from three to ten large, conspicuous, reniform, red or yellowish glands on the stalk.

Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing before the leaves, white; borne in clusters on lateral buds and spurs, in threes or fours; pedicels medium in length and thickness, glabrous; calyx-tube obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, glandular-ciliate, glabrous, erect; petals oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments of medium length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens, often defective.

Fruit mid-season; one and one-half inches long, one and three-quarters inches wide, roundish-oblate, compressed, halves equal; cavity medium in depth and width, flaring, with concentric russet rings; suture shallow; apex depressed and at one side; color dull dark red, with waxy bloom; dots numerous, large, russet, conspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem five-eighths inch long, glabrous; skin tough, bitterish, separating from the pulp; flesh dark red, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, with pleasant mild flavor, aromatic; good; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval or obovate, turgid, pointed, roughish, winged on the ventral, deeply furrowed on the dorsal suture.

APRICOT

Prunus domestica

1. Parkinson Par. Ter. 578. 1629. 2. Rea Flora 209. 1676. 3. Quintinye Com. Gard. 67, 69. 1699. 4. Duhamel Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:93, Pl. XIII. 1768. 5. Knoop Fructologie 2:52, 53, 54. 1771. 6. Kraft Pom. Aust. 2:28, Tab. 173 fig. 1; 2:34, Tab. 183 fig. 1. 1796. 7. Prince Pom. Man. 71. 1832. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 255. 1832. 9. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 327. 1849. 10. Elliott Fr. Book 424. 1854. 11. Noisette Man. Comp. Jard. 2:498. 1860. 12. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 896, 952. 1869. 13. Mas Pom. Gen. 2:133. 1873. 14. Le Bon Jard. 338. 1882. 15. Hogg Fruit Man. 684, 1884. 16. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 421, 431, 454. 1889.

Apricocke 1. Apricock Plum 2. Abricot de France 5. Abricot Blanc 16. Abricot Blanche 5. Abricot ordinaire 5. Abricote 5. Abricote blanc 7, 12. Abricotée 4, 13. Abricotée 6, 7, 10, 12, 16. Abricotée Perdrigon 6. Abricotée Blanche 7, 12, 15, 16. Apricot Plum of Tours 7. Abricote de Tours 7. Abricotée de Tours 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16. Apricot Plum 8. Apricot Plum of Tours 10, 12, 16. Abricotée Blanc 12. Aprikosenartige Pflaume 13. Apricot 13. Aprikosenartige Pflaume 16. Apricot Plum 16. Aprikosen Perdrigon 16. Die Abrikosenartige Pflaume 6. Die Morillenpflaume 6. French Apricot 9. Frühe Gelbe Kaiser Pflaume 16. Gelbe Apricosenartige Pflaume 13. Gelbe Dauphins 16. Gelbe Reine-Claude 16. Gelbe Aprikosenpflaume 16. Lieflander Gelbe Pflaume 16. Morillen Pflaume 16. Old Apricot 12, 13, 15, 16. Prune-Abricot 11. Prune Abricotée 14. Prune Abricotée Blanche 11. Prune Abricotée de Tours 8. Prune Abricote 8. Prune d’Abricot Ordinaire 5. Prune d’Abricot Blanch 5. Prune d’Abricot bigarree 5. Prune d’Abricot de France 5. Prune d’Abricot 16. Red Apricot 10 incor. Reine-Claudenartige Aprikosen Pflaume 16. Susina Massina Piccola 16. The New Apricot Plum 16. Virginale 5. White Apricot Plum 7, 12. Wahre Aprikosen Pflaume 16. White apricot 12, 16. Weisse Aprikosen Pflaume 16. Yellow Apricot 10, 12, 13, 15, 16.

Since John Parkinson described the “Apricocke” plum in 1629, several types of this variety have appeared in literature and these have become so badly confused that it is impossible to separate them. However, as the variety is nearly extinct, and will probably never be revived, this confusion is happily of historic rather than of economic interest. Nearly all writers recognize at least two types, one of which is superior to the other. The better of these can readily be identified as the “Abricotée” of Duhamel, and should be considered the true Apricot. Little is known of the early history of this variety other than that it was very generally distributed throughout Europe early in the Seventeenth Century. The American Pomological Society rejected Apricot in 1858, though it is doubtful if they had the true type. This variety is not to be confused with the Prunus simonii, commonly called “Apricot,” or the native plum of that name.