Duane originated as a seedling in the garden of James Duane, Duanesburgh, New York, about 1820. For several years, the variety was distributed by the Prince nurseries under the name Duane’s Purple French. This error was caused by Judge Duane’s accidentally sending William Prince, of Flushing, grafts of this seedling instead of a French plum[210] which he had imported in 1820. When this mistake was discovered by Downing and Tomlinson about 1846, the word French was dropped and the plum became known as Duane’s Purple and later, according to the rules of the American Pomological Society, as Duane. In 1856, it was listed by the American Pomological Society as promising well and in 1862 it was placed on the list of the fruit catalog. Tree large, vigorous, round and dense-topped, hardy and productive; branches ash-gray, smooth except for the numerous small, raised lenticels; branchlets medium to thick, variable in length, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to dark brownish-drab, dull, thickly pubescent, with raised lenticels intermediate in number and size; leaf-buds of average size and length, conical or pointed, free. Leaves folded backward, obovate or oval, one and one-half inches wide, three and one-half inches long; upper surface dark green, pubescent, rugose, with a narrow groove on the midrib; lower surface silvery-green, pubescent; apex acute, base cuneate, margin serrate, eglandular or with small amber glands; petiole one-half inch long, pubescent, tinged with red, eglandular or with one or two small, globose, greenish-brown glands on the stalk or base of the leaf. Blooming season rather early, of average length; flowers appearing before the leaves, one inch across, white; developing from lateral buds, singly or in pairs; pedicels nine-sixteenths inch long, thick, pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, erect; petals roundish, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments one-quarter inch long; pistil pubescent on the ovary, longer than the stamens.