Flowers expanding after the leaves, blooming later than any
other cultivated plum, three-quarters inch across; odor
disagreeable; clusters borne from lateral buds on one-year-old
wood only, characterizing the species, the fruit-spurs making
a very long growth, more like branches than the spurs of other
species, two to six flowers from a bud; pedicels three-quarters
inch long, very slender, glabrous; calyx-tube narrow,
campanulate, glabrous, green; calyx-lobes narrow, acute,
glandular-serrate, glands red, slightly pubescent on the inner
side, erect; petals ovate, slightly crenate, dentate at the
apex, tapering into long narrow claws; stamens about twenty in
number, yellow; pistils glabrous, equal to or shorter than the
stamens.
Fruit very late in ripening; globose, oval, an inch in
diameter; color varying from shades of red to shades of
yellow; bloom inconspicuous or lacking; dots numerous, small,
conspicuous; suture very shallow or only a line; skin thick,
tough, astringent; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous,
firm, flavor mildly sweet, astringent at the pit, strongly
aromatic; quality fair; stone clinging to the flesh, turgid,
long-oval, small, prolonged at the ends, the surfaces rough and
reticulated.
_Prunus hortulana_ as established by Bailey, to quote a part of the
original description, “includes a large class of plums represented by
Golden Beauty, Cumberland, Garfield, Sucker State, Honey Drop, probably
Wild Goose and others.” Unfortunately Bailey later added[117] a number
of other plums to the group which the above varieties and some ten or
fifteen others comprise, the additions in themselves constituting at
least three somewhat distinct groups, and then to account for this
omnibus species called it a “brood of natural hybrids.” Waugh supports
Bailey’s conclusions[118] and divides the species into four groups
of hybrids—the Miner group, the Wild Goose group and the Schley or
Clifford group. These, Waugh says, “form an unbroken series from _Prunus
americana_ to _Prunus angustifolia_.” The fourth of Waugh’s groups,
“comparatively distinct from the others, is made up of such varieties
as Wayland, Moreman, Golden Beauty, Reed, Leptune, Kanawha and others.”
These plums he designated as the “Wayland group.” This disposition of the
plums under consideration leaves _Prunus hortulana_ as the name of only a
rather loosely related lot of cultivated varieties. It is probable that
neither Bailey nor Waugh, had they seen the material now to be had, would
have left the species as they did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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