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.