AUTUMN COMPOTE
Prunus domestica
1. McIntosh Bk. Gard. 2:533. 1855. 2. Gard. Chron. 26:364. 1866. 3. Hogg Fruit Man. 351. 1866. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 897. 1869. 5. Mas Le Verger 6:71, fig. 36. 1866-73. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 685. 1884. 7. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 4:156. 1901.
Autumn Compote 5. Compote d’Automne 5.
This plum is well and favorably known in England, but it is scarcely grown in America, though it has much in the character of its fruit at least to recommend it. The plums are attractive in appearance and while not of the highest flavor are yet far above the average in the qualities which make a good dessert fruit, while for culinary purposes it ranks among the best. The trees are productive, hardy and fairly vigorous and may be especially noted as holding their crop well. Autumn Compote is a seedling of Cooper, raised by Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, England, about 1840.
Tree of medium size and vigor, spreading, rather low and open-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth, dark brownish-gray, with lenticels intermediate in number and size; branchlets few, slender, very short, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-red, dull, sparingly pubescent early in the season, becoming heavily pubescent later, with few, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds long, pointed, free.
Leaves drooping, folded backward, long-oval or obovate, two and one-eighth inches wide, four and one-fourth inches long, thick; upper surface dark green, smooth, hairy, with deeply grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex acute, base tapering, margin crenate, eglandular; petiole thick, one-half inch long, tinged red, glandless or with from one to four globose, greenish-yellow, large glands usually on the stalk.
Season of bloom medium, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-quarter inches across, in the buds creamy-yellow changing to white as the flowers open; borne in clusters on short lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels nearly one-half inch long, glabrous, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, glandular-serrate, sparingly pubescent on both surfaces, reflexed; petals oval, narrowly dentate, with very short and broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments nearly seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.