Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, productive; leaves obovate or oval, two and one-quarter inches wide, four and one-quarter inches long, slightly rugose; margin crenate; petiole one inch long, thick, tinged red, pubescent, glandless, or with one or two small glands usually at the base of the leaf. Fruit late; one and one-half inches by one and three-eighths inches in size, roundish or ovate, purplish-black, overspread with medium thick bloom; flesh golden-yellow, rather dry, firm but tender, sweet; of fair quality; stone free, one inch by three-quarters inch in size, roundish-ovate, the surfaces often granular and with a reddish tinge. IMPERIAL EPINEUSE _Prunus domestica_ =1.= _Cal. State Bd. Hort._ 48, 50. 1897-98. =2.= _U. S. D. A. Div. Pom. Bul._ =7=:316. 1898. =3.= _Can. Exp. Farm Bul._ 2nd Ser. =3=:53 1900. =4.= Bailey _Cyc. Hort._ 1378. 1901. =5.= Wickson _Cal. Fruits_ 221, 224. 1908. _Clairac Mammoth_ 1, 5. Imperial Epineux 3. Imperial Epineuse is well worthy a trial in New York. It is not surpassed in quality by any other plum of its color. It is one of the largest plums in the Prune group and is made further attractive by a handsome reddish-purple color which is lighter or darker according to the exposure of the plums to the sun. As grown in two orchards near Geneva the tree-characters are exceptionally good; the crop is so borne on the main limbs as to be protected from the sun and the tree is particularly large and vigorous, its strong upright growth being a striking characteristic of the variety. If the variety proves to be as valuable elsewhere in the State in all characters as it is here it cannot but make a very desirable plum for the market. The Imperial Epineuse was found growing as a chance seedling about 1870 in an abandoned monastery near Clairac, in the Valley of Lot, the great prune district of France. It was first brought to the United States by Felix Gillett of Nevada City, California, who received the variety with several others in 1883, three years previous to a similar importation made by John Rock of Niles, California. After testing the variety Mr. Gillett mentioned it, without a name, in his catalog in 1888 but owing to the scarcity of the trees was unable to introduce it to the trade until 1893 when it was sent out under the name “Clairac Mammoth,” from the name of its place of origin. In 1895 E. Smith & Sons of Geneva, New York, received this variety from Gillett and grew it under the name “Clarice Mammoth”.