1. Parkinson Par. Ter. 576, 578. 1629. 2. Gerard Herball 1498. 1636. 3. Miller Gard. Dict. 3:1754. 4. Abercrombie Gard. Ass’t 13. 1786. 5. Deane N. E. Farmer Dict. 266. 1797. 6. Miller Gard. Dict. 3:1807. 7. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 144. 1831. 8. Phillips Com. Orch. 306. 1831. 9. Prince Pom. Man. 2:105. 1832. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 689. 1884. 11. Jour. Hort. 27:476. 1874. 12. Garden 59:226. 1901.
Black Bulleis 1. Bullesse 2. Earley’s November 11.
This variety is interesting chiefly as an early type of the Insititia plums, its thorny branches, wayward growth, small and austere fruit, all bespeaking a wild fruit. The plums when ripened by frost are not unpleasant to taste and are borne in prodigious quantities. The variety, however, is surpassed by many other Insititias and has little value other than to show the steps between wild and highly cultivated fruits.
Black Bullace is one of the oldest of cultivated plums and all data in regard to its origin have been lost. It resembles the wild forms of its species very closely and it may have been selected from the wild. Parkinson, writing in 1629, (References, 1) gives a short description of this variety; and Gerard, in 1636, (References, 2) says: “The Bullesse and the Sloe tree are wilde kindes of Plums, which do vary in their kind, even as the greater and manured Plums do. Of Bullesse, some are of greater and of better taste than others. Sloes are some of one taste, and some of others, more sharp; some greater and others lesser; the which to distinguish with long descriptions were to small purpose, considering they be all and every of them known even to the simplest; therefore this shall suffice for their several descriptions.” Black Bullace has long been known in England and was among the first European varieties cultivated in this country. Deane in The New England Farmer, 1797, describes this variety briefly as under cultivation at that time but it did not prove popular in North America and after Prince, 1832, it seems to have dropped from American plum literature.
Tree of medium size and vigor, upright or slightly spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth except for the numerous, small, raised lenticels, dark, ash-gray; branchlets long, with short internodes, green changing to dark brownish-drab, thickly pubescent, with numerous, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds small short, obtuse, free.
Leaves oval, one and one-half inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long; upper surface dark green, rugose, hairy, with grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, heavily pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin serrate or crenate, with a few, smallish, dark glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, green, thickly pubescent, glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-brown glands on the stalk or at the base of the leaf.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing with the leaves, seven-eighths inch across, white; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels three-eighths inch long, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent only at the base; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, pubescent at margin and base, with few glands, reflexed; petals oval, entire, tapering abruptly to short claws; anthers yellowish; filaments three-eighths inch in length; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit late, season long; one and one-eighth inches by seven-eighths inch in size, distinctly oval, necked, not compressed, halves equal; cavity small, shallow, narrow, flaring; suture lacking; apex roundish, with stigma usually adhering; color purplish-black, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, brown, inconspicuous; stem one-half inch long, pubescent, adhering to the fruit; skin of medium thickness and toughness, slightly astringent, adhering somewhat; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy and fibrous, firm, sour or agreeably tart late in the season; stone clinging, three-quarters inch by one-half inch in size, irregularly oval or ovate, slightly necked at the base, acute at the apex, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture swollen, blunt; dorsal suture acute or partially furrowed.
BLACKMAN
Prunus hortulana × Prunus persica