1. Lond. Hort. Soc. Cat. 144. 1831. 2. Jour. Hort. N. S. 17:286. 1869. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 902. 1869. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1871. 5. Barry Fr. Garden 411. 1883. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 688. 1884. 7. Tenn. Sta. Bul. 3: No. 5, 88. 1890. 8. Guide Prat. 155. 1895. 9. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 4:157. 1901. 10. Waugh Plum Cult. 98. 1901. 11. Mass. Sta. An. Rpt. 17:158. 1905.
Bryanstone 11. Bryanston Gage 1, 2, 6, 9. Bryanston’s Gage 3, 5, 7. Bryanston’s Gage 10. Bryanstone Gage 4. Reine-Claude Bryanston 8.
The fruits of Bryanston fall not a little short, all things considered, of being as good as those of several other of the varieties in the Reine Claude group of which this plum is a member. For this reason Bryanston is not often rated by horticulturists as one of the best plums, but the large, vigorous trees growing on the Station grounds are so especially desirable for this variety, in a group which taken as a whole is noted for poor trees, that it is here described among the leading plums. The fruit is larger than that of Reine Claude but is less attractive in color and shape and the quality is not as high. It is later than the variety with which it has just been compared and the crop is not borne as regularly. While this plum can hardly be recommended for extensive orchard plantings, it yet has too many merits to be forgotten.
This variety is said to be the result of crossing Reine Claude and Golden Drop at Bryanston Park, Blandford, England. It was first noted in the London Horticultural Society fruit catalog in 1831 but no information in regard to the date of its origin seems to have been published. In 1871 the American Pomological Society added it to its fruit catalog list but dropped it in 1897.
Tree very large and vigorous, round-topped, open, hardy, very productive; branches smooth, becoming rough near the trunk, ash-gray, with lenticels of medium size and number; branchlets somewhat slender, short, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dull reddish-brown, marked by scarf-skin, dull, glabrous, with few, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds above medium in size and length, pointed, free; leaf-scars prominent.
Leaves folded backward, oval or obovate, one and five-eighths inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long, leathery; upper surface dark green, sparingly hairy, with a shallow groove on the midrib; lower surface yellowish-green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin crenate, bearing small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, pubescent, with a little red, glandless or with one or two small, globose, yellowish glands.
Blooming season intermediate in time, short; flowers appearing with the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white, creamy at the apex of the petals in the newly opened flowers; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels one-half inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent at the base; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-ciliate, somewhat reflexed; petals roundish-ovate, erose; anthers yellow; filaments about one-quarter inch long; pistil glabrous except at the base, slightly longer than the stamens; stigma large.
Fruit mid-season; one and five-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size, irregular roundish-truncate, halves unequal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture usually shallow, prominent; apex flattened or depressed; color dull yellow with greenish streaks, sometimes with pinkish blush about the cavity, mottled, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, inconspicuous; stem thick, three-quarters inch long, pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tough, sour, separating readily; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, aromatic; very good; stone nearly free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, broadly oval, turgid, slightly contracted at the blunt base, roundish at the apex, with rough and pitted surfaces; ventral suture broad, with a distinct but small wing; dorsal suture widely and deeply grooved.
BURBANK
