Leaves folded backward, obovate, one and seven-eighths inches wide, three and one-quarter inches long; upper surface dark green, rugose, sparingly hairy; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed or acute, base acute, margin serrate or crenate, covered with small dark glands; petiole nearly seven-eighths inch long, pubescent, reddish, glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in size and position. Blooming season early and short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white, the buds creamy at the apex when unfolding; borne in clusters on lateral spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels about one-half inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, serrate, reflexed; petals obovate, dentate, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellow; filaments about seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent near the base, equal to the stamens in length. Fruit very early, season short; one and one-half inches by one and three-eighths inches in size, oval, halves equal; cavity narrow, abrupt, regular; suture shallow and often indistinct; apex roundish or slightly depressed; color dark purplish-red, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; stem five-eighths inches long, pubescent, adhering poorly to the fruit; skin tender, sour, separating readily; flesh pale yellow, dry, firm, sweet, mild but pleasant; of good quality; stone free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, somewhat flattened, irregular-oval, with pitted surfaces, tapering abruptly at the base, nearly acute at the apex; ventral suture of medium width, usually rather blunt; dorsal suture with a wide, deep groove. COLUMBIA _Prunus domestica_ =1.= _Mag. Hort._ =8=:90. 1842. =2.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 292. 1845. =3.= Cole _Am. Fr. Book_ 216. 1849 =4.= Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._ 334. 1849. =5.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 86. 1862. =6.= Mas _Pom. Gen._ =2=:159. 1873. =7.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 691. 1884. =8.= _Wash. Hort. Soc. Rpt._ 135. 1893. _Columbian Gage_ 2, 4. _Columbia Pflaume_ 6. _Columbia Gage_ 7. When grown on strong soils and in some climates, Columbia is possibly a plum of value and sometimes of superiority, but in New York in the average plantation it falls far short of other fruits of its type—that of the Reine Claude. The trees are productive and the fruit large and handsome but not of highest quality and moreover drops badly and is very susceptible to the brown-rot. Columbia originated early in the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century with L. V. Lawrence of Hudson, New York, from seed of Reine Claude.