It would be hard to name another plum as showy as Golden. Large for its group, beautifully turned, it presents a most striking appearance long before it is ripe, with its bright yellow skin and crimson cheek, the whole plum turning to a brilliant currant-red with a delicate bloom at maturity. But the plum is little more than showy. The flavor is not good, the flesh is fibrous, excessively juicy and adheres to the stone, the skin is tough and astringent. In spite of the juiciness the plum ships well, owing to the tough skin, but the fruits are much attacked by brown-rot and the skin cracks badly under unfavorable conditions. The trees are rather small, uncertain in bearing, often enormously productive but do not hold the crop well, and the plums ripen unevenly. Strange to say, considering the parentage, the variety is hardy, according to Waugh standing the winters at Burlington, Vermont, almost perfectly. In tree and fruit the variety is more like its American parent than the Asiatic one. Golden can never be a money-maker in New York, but it is worth having in a home orchard for its handsome appearance. The original tree of this variety was grown in 1887 or 1888 by Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California, from a seed of Robinson fertilized by pollen of Abundance. In 1892, the variety was erroneously described in the United States Department of Agriculture Report as a seedling of Kelsey fertilized by Burbank. The same year it was named Golden by Burbank and in 1893 it was offered for sale in his catalog, _New Creations in Fruits and Flowers_. Soon after, the original tree and the right of introduction were purchased by Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards Company, Louisiana, Missouri, and in 1894 the variety was catalogued and disseminated under the name Gold. This name was registered as a trade-mark in the United States Patent Office in 1905, but as the prior application and publication of Golden entitles it to precedence according to the nomenclature of the American Pomological Society, the name Gold has generally been dropped by pomologists. The confusion as to the origin and nomenclature of this variety has been increased by its parentage being published[214] as a cross of Robinson and Kelsey and by the California shippers labeling it Late Klondike.