The trees of the Insititia varieties are readily distinguished from

the Domestica sorts in having a dwarfer and more compact habit; much

smaller and more ovate leaves with more closely serrate margins; branches

more finely divided, more slender, with shorter joints, and bearing

spines or spinescent spurs; having a more abundant and a more clustered

inflorescence, with smaller flowers, a glabrous instead of a pubescent

pistil and calyx-tube; reflexed calyx-lobes where in Domestica they

are often erect; and flowers appearing nearly a week later. The number

of stamens in _Prunus domestica_ averages about thirty; in _Prunus

insititia_, about twenty-five. The fruit-characters of _Prunus insititia_

are even more distinctive. The fruits are smaller, being less than an

inch in diameter, more nearly round or oval, more uniform in shape, never

strongly compressed as in Domestica, with a less distinct suture and more

often with a pronounced neck. The color is usually the Damson purple or

the Mirabelle yellow, with no intermediate colors as in Domestica and

with few or but slight variations as compared with the other species.

The plums are sweet or sour with a very much smaller range in flavor in

the case of the Insititias and withal very distinct from that of _Prunus

domestica_. The stones are smaller, more oval and much more swollen.

In variability the Insititia plums are quite the reverse of the

Domesticas, almost wholly lacking this quality. These plums have been

cultivated over two thousand years, yet there is seemingly little

difference between the sorts described by the Greeks and Romans at the

beginning of the Christian Era and those we are now growing. So, too, one

often finds half-wild chance seedlings with fruit indistinguishable from

varieties under the highest cultivation. This pronounced immutability of

the species is one of its chief characteristics.

There are probably several sub-divisions of _Prunus insititia_ but

material does not exist in America for the proper determination of the

true place for these forms, and the Old World botanists cannot agree in

regard to them. It is probable that _Prunus subsylvestris_ Boutigny[61]

and _Prunus pomarium_ Boutigny[62] belong to _Prunus insititia_ and

almost beyond question _Prunus syriaca_ Koehne[63] is the yellow-fruited

Mirabelle of this species. _Prunus insititia glaberrima_ Wirtg,[64]

occasionally found in the herbaria of Europe has, with its small,

roundish-obovate leaves, but little appearance of _Prunus insititia_ and

may be, as Schneider surmises,[65] a cross between _Prunus spinosa_ and

the Myrobalan of _Prunus cerasifera_.

The Insititia plums are second in importance only to the Domesticas.

Their recorded history is older. This is the plum of the Greek poets,

Archilochus and Hippona, in the Sixth Century B. C.[66] Theophrastus,

the philosopher, mentioned it three hundred years before Christ, as

did Pollux, the writer and grammarian, a century before the Savior,

while Dioscorides, the founder of botany, during the last named period,

distinguishes between this plum and one from Syria, presumably a

Domestica. This is one of the twelve kinds of plums described by Pliny

(see page 17) who calls it the Damascene, so-called from Damascus in

Syria, and says of it, “introduced long since into Italy.” It is the

Damask plum of Columella when in his tenth book he says:

“then are the wicker baskets cramm’d

With Damask and Armenian and Wax plums.”

The yellow plums of the Roman poets, Ovid and Vergil, are probably the

Bullaces or Mirabelles of this species. Indeed, its cultivation was

probably prehistoric, for Heer[67] has illustrated and described stones

of a plum found in the lake-dwellings of Robenhausen which can be no

other than those of Insititia.

The authentic written history of this plum may be said to have begun with

or a little before the Christian Era. The records of the cultivation and

development through the early centuries of the present chronology and

the Middle Ages to our own day may be found in the herbals, botanies,

pomologies, agricultural and general literature of the past two thousand

years.

_Prunus insititia_ now grows wild in nearly all temperate parts of Europe

and western Asia—from the Mediterranean northward into Norway, Sweden and

Russia. The botanists of Europe very generally agree that its original

habitat was in southern and southeastern Europe and the adjoining parts

of Asia, and that elsewhere it is an escape from cultivation. Hooker[68]

says that _Prunus insititia_ grows in western temperate Himalaya,

cultivated and indigenous, from Gurwhal to Kashmir, the type being that

of the “common yellow-fruited Bullace.” A few botanical writers hold that

it is truly wild in the parts of Europe where now found growing. There

are also not a few botanists who, as has been stated in the discussion of

the Domestica plums, unite the Insititias with the Domesticas, and others

who combine these two with the Spinosa plums in one species, _Prunus

communis_.[69]

It is possible that the species is occasionally found naturalized in

eastern United States; several botanists so give it.

Wherever the habitat of the Insititia plums may have been, practically

all writers from the Greeks and Romans who first mention this fruit to

those of the present time, connect the cultivated varieties in one way

or another with the old Semite city, Damascus. It is almost certain

that the Syrians or Persians were the first to cultivate these plums,

and that they were unknown in Europe as domesticated varieties until

the Greeks first and the Romans afterward came in intimate contact with

the people of the Orient. Thus it is often stated in the old pomologies

that Alexander the Great brought these plums from the Orient after his

expedition of conquest and that some centuries later Pompey, returning

from his invasion of the eastern countries, brought plums to the Roman

Empire.

The history of the Insititia plums in America has been given in the main

in the discussion of the Domestica plums, for the varieties of the two

species have never been kept separate by plum-growers, all being grouped

together as European plums. It is probable, however, that the Damson

plums of this species were earlier introduced and more generally grown

than any other of the European plums by the English settlers of America,

as the references to plum-growing before the Revolution are largely to

the Damsons. The reasons for this early preference for these plums are

that they come true to seed while most varieties of the Domestica do not;

and trees and cions were not readily transportable in colonial times;

and, too, the Damsons have always been favorite plums with the English.

When the first American fruit books were published at the beginning of

the Nineteenth Century the Damsons and Bullaces were widely grown, for

all writers give a relatively large number of varieties of these plums

and speak well of them. Thus McMahon,[70] in his list of thirty plums

gives six that belong here, ending his list with “Common Damson, etc.,”

as if there were still more than those he enumerates. Prince, in his

_Pomological Manual_, in 1832, gives at least eighteen sorts that may

be referred to Insititia with the statement that one of them, the Early

Damson “appears to have been brought to this country by the early Dutch

settlers, or by the French who settled here at the time of the revocation

of the Edict of Nantes,” adding, “It is much disseminated throughout this

section of the country.” At the end of the Eighteenth Century Deane’s[71]

_New England Farmer or Georgical Dictionary_, in a discussion of plums

in general says: “The most common plum in this country is the Damascene

plum, an excellent fruit for preserving, which is said to have been

brought from Damasam, hence the name.”

The hardiness, thriftiness and productiveness of all of the varieties

of this species commend them to those who cannot give the care required

to grow the less easily grown Domesticas, and in America, as in Europe,

these plums are to be found in almost every orchard and in many

communities half-wild, thriving with little or no care. The fact that

they are easily propagated, growing readily from suckers and coming true

to seed is an added reason for their general distribution.

The Insititia plums do not seem to hybridize freely with other species—at

least there are no recorded offspring of such hybrids, though Koch

believes the Reine Claudes to be a hybrid group between this species and

the Domesticas and there is much evidence in the fruit to show that the

French Damson is part Domestica. The tree-characters of the Insititia

plums are such, especially as regards vigor, hardiness, productiveness

and freedom from disease, as to seemingly make hybrids with them very

desirable. That this species can be hybridized with Domestica, at least,

is certain from work done at this Station where we have made a number of

crosses between them.

Four groups of plums, the Damsons, Bullaces, Mirabelles and St. Juliens,

in all eighty-six varieties mentioned in _The Plums of New York_, may be

referred to this species. There are so few real differences between these

divisions, however, that it is hardly possible, logically, to sub-divide

Insititia plums into more than two groups. But since the groups of plums

given above are so often referred to in pomological works it is necessary

to discuss them.

_The Damsons._—The description given the species fits this division of

it closely, the differentiating character for the fruit, if any, being

oval fruits, while the Bullaces, most nearly like these, are round. The

origin of the Damsons, as we have seen, was in Syria and near the ancient

city, Damascus, their written history dating back several centuries

before Christ. This plum has escaped from cultivation in nearly all the

temperate parts of Europe and more or less in the eastern United States,

the wild forms often passing under other names, as the Wild, Wheat,

Spilling, Donkey, Ass, Hog and Horse plums. The true Damsons have a

fine spicy taste, which makes them especially desirable for cooking and

preserving, but a very decided astringency of the skin makes most of the

varieties of Damsons undesirable to eat out of the hand; this astringency

largely disappears with cooking or after a light frost. Nearly all

Damsons are sour, though a few sweet Insititias are placed in this group.

Since the seeds grow readily and the sprouts are very manageable, the

Damsons, with the other Insititias, are much used as stocks upon which to

work other plums, especially the less hardy and less thrifty Domesticas.

Although less used now than formerly for stocks it is a question if these

plums, or some of their near kin, do not make the best obtainable stocks.

There seems to be much difference in the varieties of Insititia in their

capacity to send up sprouts. The forms which send up the fewest sprouts

are much the best for use as stocks.

Curiously enough, the Damsons are highly esteemed now only by the

Americans and English, being grown much less at present in Continental

Europe than a century or two ago. Late pomological works and

nurserymen’s catalogs from others than the English or Americans barely

mention these plums.

_The Bullaces._—It is impossible to distinguish between the

tree-characters of the Damsons and the Bullaces, and pomologists are far

from agreeing as to what differences in the fruit throw a variety into

one group or the other. Some writers call a sour variety of Insititia a

Damson, and a sweet one a Bullace; others make color the differentiating

character, calling the purple plums Damsons and the light colored ones

Bullaces; still others call oval Insititias Damsons and round ones

Bullaces. If a distinction is to be made, shape seems to be the character

upon which it should be based. The name Bullace applies to the round

shape of the fruit, but when first used or by whom given it is impossible

to say. It is commonly used in the old herbals and pomologies of both

England and Continental Europe, there being many variations of the name,

of which _bullis_ and _bulloes_ are most common with the word _bullum_ in

frequent use for the fruit of the Bullace tree. The varieties of Bullaces

are few in number, and are not largely grown, being known for most part

only in fruit collections, the Damsons serving all the purposes for which

the Bullaces would be worth growing, and to better advantage.

_The Mirabelles._—The Mirabelles are round, yellowish or golden,

freestone Insititias, ranging from half an inch to an inch in diameter,

very slightly sub-acid or sweet. The trees do not differ from the type

of the species unless it be in even greater productiveness than the

other groups of Insititia, all of which bear very abundant crops. The

fruits represent the highest quality to be found in the varieties of this

species, approaching the Reine Claudes of _Prunus domestica_ in richness

of flavor. Indeed, the Mirabelles may almost be said to be diminutive

Reine Claudes, resembling them not only in quality but in color and in

shape, and so closely as to lend color to Koch’s[72] supposition that

the Reine Claudes are hybrids between _Prunus domestica_ and _Prunus

insititia_.

In France the Mirabelles are accorded second if not first place among

plums, being superseded in popularity, if at all, only by the Reine

Claudes. They are used in the fresh state and as prunes, and are freely

made into conserves, preserves, jellies and jams, being found in the

markets in some of these forms the year round. They are much used for

pastry, their size being such that one layer of fruit suffices and is

none too deep for a good pie or tart. The fermented juice of these plums

is somewhat largely used in the making of a distilled liquor, a sort of

plum brandy. The dozen or more varieties of Mirabelles differ chiefly in

size of fruit and in time of maturity. The range in size is from half an

inch to an inch in diameter and in time of ripening in France from the

first of August to the first of October.

The Red Mirabelle frequently referred to in pomological works is _Prunus

cerasifera_, and the name is wrongly so used, for if not first applied

to the several varieties of Insititia it now by almost universal usage

belongs to these plums. The origin of the word, as now commonly used,

dates back over two centuries, being found in the pomological treatises

of the Seventeenth Century. The assumption is that Mirabelle is derived

from _mirable_ meaning wonderful, and the name was first so used by the

French.

Unfortunately the Mirabelles are hardly known in America. These plums

have so many good qualities of tree and fruit that American pomology

would be greatly enriched if the best Mirabelle varieties were grown in

both home and commercial orchards. They should be used in cookery much as

are the Damsons, which they surpass for some purposes.

_St. Juliens._—The St. Julien that the writer has seen in American and

European nurseries is unmistakably an Insititia. At one time St. Julien

stocks were used almost exclusively in New York nurseries, and few large

plum orchards are free from trees which have through accident to the cion

grown from the stock. Such trees bear fruit so like the Damson that one

is warranted in saying that the two are identical, and that St. Julien is

but a name used for a Damson when the latter is employed as a stock. The

fruit is sweetish with a taste identical with that of the sweet Damsons.

Plum-growers who have had experience with plums on several stocks are

almost united in the opinion that the St. Julien is the best of all for

the Domesticas, at least. St. Julien stocks were formerly imported in

great numbers from France, where it is still largely grown for European

use. The name seems to have come in use in France more than a century

ago, but why given or to what particular Insititia applied does not

appear. There is, however, a distinct variety or type of Insititia used

by the French in producing stocks, for French pomologists advise careful

selection of mother-plants for the production of the young trees by

suckers or layers, and caution growers of stocks in no case to use seeds

which bring twiggy, spiny and crooked stocks.[73] St. Julien plums are

seemingly nowhere grown at present for their fruits.

There are several ornamental forms of plums which are given specific

names by European horticulturists, mentioned in the last paragraph in the

discussion of the Domestica plums, which some writers place, in part at

least, with the Insititias. These plums are not found in America and it

is impossible to place them with certainty in either of the two species

upon the contradictory evidence of the Europeans.

=3.= =PRUNUS SPINOSA= Linnaeus.

=1.= Linnaeus _Sp. Pl._ 475. 1753. =2.= Hudson _Fl. Anglic._

186. 1778. =3.= Ehrhart _Beitr. Nat._ =4=:16. 1789. =4.= Pursh

_Fl. Am. Sept._ =1=:333. 1814. =5.= Hooker _Fl. Bor. Am._

=1=:167. 1833. =6.= Torrey and Gray _Fl. N. Am._ =1=:408. 1840.

=7.= Koch, K. _Dend._ =1=:98. 1869. =8.= Ibid. _Deut. Obst._

143. 1876. 9. DeCandolle _Or. Cult._ Pl. 212. 1885. 10. Schwarz

_Forst. Bot._ 339. 1892. 11. Koch, W. _Syn. Deut. und Schw.

Fl._ =1=:726. 1892. =12.= Dippel _Handb. Laubh._ =3=:637. 1893.

=13.= Koehne _Deut. Dend._ 316. 1893. =14.= Beck von Managetta

_Nied. Oester._ 818. 1893. =15.= Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1447

fig. 1901. =16.= Schneider _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:628. 1906.

Plant low, spreading, much-branched, thorny, shrubby, seldom

attaining the dimensions of a small tree; branchlets distinctly

pubescent; leaves small, ovate or oblong-ovate, sometimes

obovate, numerous, nearly glabrous at maturity, obtuse at the

apex, cuneate or rounded at the base, margins closely and

finely serrate.

Flowers white, one-third or one-half inch in diameter,

expanding before the leaves; borne singly, in pairs or

sometimes in threes, in lateral clusters.

Fruit globose, usually less than one-half inch in diameter,

dark blue, almost black, with a heavy bloom; flesh juicy, firm,

with an acid, austere taste, scarcely edible for a dessert

fruit but making a very good conserve; stone turgid or but

little flattened, acute on one edge.

European botanists commonly break the species into a number of

sub-species, as:—_Prunus spinosa typica_ Schneider,[74] flower-pedicels

and calyx-cup glabrous; _Prunus spinosa praecox_ Wim. and Grab.,[75]

pedicels short, blossoms appearing before the leaves; _Prunus spinosa

sessiliflora_ Beck,[76] with sessile flowers, possibly the same as the

next preceding form; _Prunus spinosa coatanea_ Wim. and Grab.[77],

blossoming with the leaves and with long pedicels; and _Prunus spinosa

dasyphylla_ Schur.[78], flower-pedicel and calyx-cup more or less hairy.

Besides these botanical sub-divisions there are several horticultural

forms as follows:

_Prunus spinosa flore-pleno_ of the nurserymen is a double-flowered form,

making a beautiful little shrub or small tree much planted in gardens in

Europe and somewhat in America. Its blossoms are pure white, about half

an inch in diameter and not quite double, as the stamens form an orange

cluster in the center of the flower. The flowers are thickly crowded on

short spiny branches, the dark color of which forms a striking contrast

to the white flower. _Prunus spinosa purpurea_ is another horticultural

group, more vigorous than the species, less thorny and with larger

foliage. Its branches are erect, purplish in color, striated. The leaves

and petioles are at first very pubescent but at maturity glabrous; the

upper surface of the leaf is green marked with red, the under a deep

reddish-violet. The flowers are a pale rose. One or two variegated forms

of this species are also offered by nurserymen.

Schneider holds[79] _Prunus fruticans_ Weihe[80] and _Prunus spinosa

macrocarpa_ Wallroth[81] to be crosses between _Prunus spinosa_ and

_Prunus insititia_.

_Prunus spinosa_, the Blackthorn or European Sloe, is the common wild

plum of temperate Europe and the adjoining parts of Asia. It is adventive

from Europe to America and is now quite naturalized along roadsides and

about fields in many places in eastern United States. _Prunus spinosa_

is considered by some authors the remote ancestor of the Domestica and

Insititia plums, but as brought out in the discussion of the last named

species, such parentage is very doubtful.

The Spinosa plum is a common and often pestiferous plant in its habitat,

the roots forming such a mass that in general it is impossible for any

other vegetation to grow in its vicinity. The plant is small, spreading

and much branched and bristles with sharp thorns. The leaves are smaller

than those of any of the other Old World species, ovate in shape and very

finely serrate. The flowers are usually single but sometimes in pairs or

threes and are borne in such number as to make a dazzling mass of white;

comparatively few of these, however, set fruit. The fruit is round and

small, usually less than half an inch in diameter, and, typically, so

black as to have given rise to the old saying, “as black as a sloe.” The

fruits are firm but rather juicy, with an acid, austere flavor, which

makes them unfit for eating out of hand until frost-bitten, when the

austereness is somewhat mitigated. The stone is much swollen, with one

edge acute.

European nurserymen now and then offer trees of the Spinosa plum for

fruit-growing, sometimes with the statement that the fruit is sweet. But

pomologists do not speak highly of these cultivated Spinosas and hold

that they are hardly worth cultivation. The wild plums are quite commonly

picked for certain markets in Europe, however, especially those in which

the Domesticas and Insititias are not common. With plenty of sugar the

fruits make a very good conserve. In France the unripe fruit is pickled

as a substitute for olives and the juice of the ripe fruit is sometimes

used to make or adulterate cheap grades of port wine. In the country

districts of Germany and Russia the fruit is crushed and fermented and

spirit distilled from it.

The species is quite variable within limits, but since the wild fruits

have been used from the time of the lake-dwellers of central Europe,

without the appearance of desirable forms, the variations are not

likely to give horticultural varieties worth cultivating for table use.

The variations in the fruit are usually in color, the size and flavor

changing but little. Several ornamental forms are in cultivation, of

which the chief ones have been named.

=4.= =PRUNUS CURDICA= Fenzl and Fritsch.

=1.= Fenzl and Fritsch _Sitzb. Akad. Wien._ Bd. CI. =1=:627.

1892. =2.= Schneider _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:628. 1906.

The few herbarium specimens that the writer has seen of this species from

southeastern Europe strongly resemble _Prunus spinosa_ but Schneider in

the above reference describing it from living specimens says that it

differs from the species last named as follows: “Lower growth, about

one-half as high, spreading squarrose ramification, much less thorniness;

leaves more like _domestica_, when young hairy on both sides, later

above nearly and underneath more or less glabrous; petiole shorter, not

exceeding one cm.; blooms later, nearly with the leaves, white, about

twenty-two mm. in diameter, borne almost always single in this species;

pedicel finely pilose, in _Prunus spinosa_ almost glabrous; stamens

fewer, about twenty; fruit blue black, stem longer, exceeding twelve mm.”

So far as appears from the few and scant European references to the

species it has no horticultural value.

=5.= =PRUNUS COCOMILIA= Tenore.

=1.= Tenore _Fl. Neap. Prodr._ Suppl. =2=:68. 1811. =2.=

Schneider _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:628. 1906.

Tree shrub-like, top thick, broadly ovate; branches

drooping, shoots short; branchlets glabrous, young wood

olive or reddish-brown. Buds small, roundish-ovate; leaves

roundish-obovate, sharply and distinctly serrated, glabrous

or upon the ribs on the under side sparsely pubescent.

Flowers usually in pairs, opening before or with the leaves,

greenish-white, pedicels about the length of the calyx-cups.

Fruit yellow, agreeable.

The writer has seen only herbarium specimens of this plant and has taken

the description given from European texts. According to Schneider the

species has been divided into two varieties by the Italian botanists.

_Prunus cocomilia typica_ having oblong-ovate fruit and _Prunus

cocomilia brutia_ having round fruit. Schneider holds also that _Prunus

pseudoarmeniaca_ Heldr. and Sart.[82] from Epirus and Thessaly is a

variety of _Prunus cocomilia_ differing chiefly in having more pointed

leaves and smaller oblong-roundish red plums. The same author puts in

this species still another plum, a hairy-leaved form from Thessaly which

he calls _Prunus cocomilia puberula_. He places here also _Prunus ursina_

Kotschy[83] which differs only in minor respects from the species,

chiefly in having violet-red fruit though Boissier[84] mentions a

yellow-fruited plum which he calls _Prunus ursina flava_. The last named

plums come from Lebanon and North Syria.

=6.= =PRUNUS CERASIFERA= Ehrhart[85]

[Illustration: _PRUNUS CERASIFERA_]

=1.= Ehrhart _Beitr. Nat._ =4=:17. 1789. =2.= Hooker _Brit.

Fl._ 220. 1830. =3.= Koch, K. _Dend._ =1=:97. 1869. =4.= Koch,

W. _Syn. Deut. und Schw. Fl._ =1=:727. 1892. =5.= Bailey

Cornell Sta. Bul. =38=:66. 1892. =6.= Schneider _Handb. Laubh._

=1=:632. 1892. =7.= Schwarz _Forst. Bot._ 339. 1892. =8.=

Dippel _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:633. 1893.

_P. domestica myrobalan._ =9.= Linnaeus _Sp. Pl._ 475. 1753.

=10.= Seringe _DC. Prodr._ =2=:538. 1825.

_P. myrobalan._ =11.= Loisleur _Nouv. Duham._ =5=:184. 1812.

=12.= Koehne _Deut. Dend._ 316. 1893.

Tree small or a tree-like shrub, seldom exceeding twenty-five

feet in height; branches upright, slender, twiggy, unarmed or

sometimes thorny; branchlets soon glabrous, becoming yellow or

chestnut-brown; lenticels few, small, orange in color, raised.

Winter-buds small, obtuse, short-pointed, pale reddish-brown;

leaves small, short-ovate, apex acute, base cuneate or rounded,

thin, membranaceous, texture firm, light green, nearly glabrous

on both surfaces at maturity, though hairy along the rib on

the lower surface, margins finely and closely serrate; petiole

one-half or three-quarters of an inch long, slender, usually

glabrous, glandless.

Flowers large, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, expanding

very early or mostly with the leaves; calyx-lobes lanceolate,

glandular, reflexed; petals white, sometimes with a blush,

ovate-oblong or orbicular, the base contracted into a claw;

borne singly, sometimes in pairs, in cymes on long, slender,

glabrous peduncles.

Fruit small, one-half inch or a little more in diameter,

globular or depressed-globular, cherry-like, red or yellow;

skin thin and tender; flesh soft, juicy, sweet and rather

pleasantly flavored; stone oval, short-pointed at both ends,

somewhat turgid, ridged on one suture and grooved on the other.

_Prunus cerasifera_, the Cherry plum, first came to notice in pomological

literature as the Myrobalan plum, a name used as early as the last half

of the Sixteenth Century by Tabernæ-Montanus and given prominence in the

_Rariorum Plantarum Historum_, published by Clusius in 1601. Why applied

to this plum is not known. Myrobalan had long before been used, and is

still, as the name of several plum-like fruits of the East Indies, not

of the genus Prunus, which are used in tanning, dyeing, ink-making and

embalming. Until Ehrhart gave it the name _Prunus cerasifera_ in 1789 it

was known as the Myrobalan plum by botanists, some of whom, and nearly

all horticulturists, have continued the use of the name until the present

time.

Not a few of the botanists who have used Myrobalan for this plum have

called it a botanical variety of _Prunus domestica_. Among these were

Linnaeus and Seringe. Others, as Loisleur and Poiteau, have preferred the

name for the species as distinguished by Ehrhart.

Many of the early botanists, as Tournefort in 1700, Ehrhart in 1701,

Loudon in 1806 and Loisleur in 1812, gave the origin of the Cerasifera

plums as North America, but upon what authority does not appear. On the

other hand many European botanists, including Linnaeus, gave the habitat

as Europe or Asia. The supposition that this plum came from North America

hardly needs discussion. The plum flora of this continent has been well

enough studied so that it can be said that no plant that could by any

possibility be the Cerasifera plum grows on this side of the Atlantic.

Neither does it seem logical to consider this an off-shoot of _Prunus

domestica_, for fruit and tree-characters are distinctly different, and

for a member of the genus Prunus are remarkably constant. Moreover, there

is abundant evidence to show that this is a distinct species and that its

nativity is in the Turkish and nearby countries in Europe and Asia and

that there it has been in cultivation for a long time.

It is very significant that in the old herbals and botanies a frequent

name of this fruit is “the Turkish plum.” But more specific and almost

conclusive proof is that two forms of plums belonging to this species are

known to come from the Caucasus region. _Prunus divaricata_[86] is now

considered by some botanists to be a synonym of _Prunus cerasifera_ and

by others to be a botanical variety of the last named species. Ledebour,

who named it, found it in the Trans-Caucasian region. It differs from the

type only in having much divided, wide-spreading and nearly prostrate

branches. The Pissardi plum, a purple-leaved form of this species,

originated in Persia. A plum now growing in the Arnold Arboretum raised

from seed from Turkestan, presumably from wild stock, is identical with

plants of Cerasifera of European origin. And, according to Schneider,[87]

this plum is known in the wild state in Caucasus, Trans-Caucasus,

northern Persia and Turkestan.

The Cerasifera plums are small trees, usually upright but in some forms

with spreading branches which are commonly unarmed, glabrous and brownish

in color. The leaves are ovate and smaller and thinner and with more

finely serrate margin than those of the Domestica plums. It blooms

prolifically and bears large, white, single or paired flowers, making

a most beautiful tree when in flower. The fruit is small, round, and

cherry-like, from half an inch to an inch in diameter, usually red but

sometimes yellow. The flesh is soft, sweetish or sub-acid and poor. The

stone is turgid, smooth and pointed. The species is variable in nearly

all tree-characters, and were it not surpassed by other plums for its

fruit there would undoubtedly be a great number of varieties cultivated

for the markets. There are, however, but few cultivated Cerasiferas, only

nineteen being described in _The Plums of New York_. It is very generally

distributed wherever plums are grown, because of the use to which it has

been put as stocks for other species. For this purpose it is held in

high esteem the world over. In the nurseries of New York it is now used

more than any other stock and it is common to find it fruiting here and

there from plants set for or used as stocks. In fact practically all

the cultivated varieties have arisen as survivals of plants meant for

stocks. It is almost certain that the Cerasifera, or Myrobalan, as it is

universally known by horticulturists, dwarfs the cion and that it is not

equally well suited to all varieties; but it does not “sprout” as badly

as some other stocks, is adapted to many soils, and the young trees grow

well and are rapidly budded, giving at the start a strong and vigorous

orchard tree.

The Cerasifera plums are handsome trees. The foliage is a fresh and

beautiful green and whether covered with a mass of flowers or loaded with

red or yellow fruit these plums are as handsome as any of our cultivated

fruit trees, and as desirable for ornamentals.

The hardiness, thriftiness, freedom from disease and adaptability to

soils make the species desirable for hybridizing. A number of breeders of

plums have made use of it with some indications of a promising future,

several interesting hybrid offspring of this species being described in

_The Plums of New York_.

The small number of varieties of Cerasifera cultivated for their

fruit indicates that but little can be expected from this species by

plum-growers, since so little has come from it in the shape of edible

fruits, though it has been under general cultivation for over three

hundred years, at least, as an ornamental and as a stock. Several

valuable groups of ornamentals have arisen from Cerasifera, of which the

following are most notable:—

In 1880 M. Pissard, gardener to the Shah of Persia, sent to France a

purple-leaved plum which proved to be a form of _Prunus cerasifera_. To

this plum Dippel[88] gave the name _Prunus cerasifera atropurpurea_,

while horticulturists very generally call it _Prunus pissardi_. A

close study of the purple-leaved plum reveals no character in which it

differs from the species except in the color of foliage, flowers and

fruit; the leaves are purple, as are also the calyx and peduncles of the

flowers, while the fruit is a dark wine-red. These are but horticultural

characters and do not seem to be of sufficient importance to establish

for this plant a botanical variety. This view is strengthened by the

fact that Jack[89] reports that seeds from the purple-leaved plum have

produced plants which agree in all essential particulars with the

species; while Kerr[90] has grown a purple-leaved plum from a variety of

_Prunus cerasifera_.

Besides this well-known purple-leaved plum nurserymen offer _Prunus

pendula_, a weeping form; _Prunus planteriensis_, bearing double white

and red flowers; _Prunus acutifolia_, a plum with narrow, willow-like

leaves; _Prunus contorta_, characterized by twisted, contorted foliage;

_Prunus elegans_, _Prunus gigantea_, and a variety with yellow and

another with variegated leaves, etc. All of these are probably

horticultural varieties of _Prunus cerasifera_ though some of them cannot

be classified with surety.

Schneider[91] calls _Prunus dasycarpa_ Ehrhart,[92] the _Prunus armeniaca

dasycarpa_ of Borkhausen,[93] a cross between _Prunus cerasifera_ and

_Prunus armeniaca_, one of the apricots.

=7.= =PRUNUS MONTICOLA= K. Koch

=1.= Koch, K. _Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol._ App. 1854. =2.=

Schneider _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:632. 1906.

Plant shrub-like, slender, upright, scarcely thorny, new wood

more or less olive-brown. Buds short, ovate; leaves roundish or

cuneiform, base oblong-ovate, point drawn out, main nerves over

six on both sides, the serrations coarse and uniform in size,

always glabrous. Flowers mostly in twos; borne on long, slender

peduncles; calyx usually glabrous; petals white, odor slight;

stamens thirty or more. Fruit small, roundish-oblong, red;

stone ovoid, pointed at one end, somewhat turgid.

_Prunus monticola_ is described by the above authors as a shrub-like

plum from Asia Minor and Armenia having, so far as can be learned from

European texts, little or no horticultural value. The herbarium specimens

seen by the writer indicate that this species is closely related to

_Prunus cerasifera_. The description of the species is abbreviated from

Schneider.

=8.= =PRUNUS TRIFLORA= Roxburgh

[Illustration: _PRUNUS TRIFLORA_]

=1.= Roxburgh _Hort. Bengal_ 38. 1814. =2.= Ibid. _Fl. Indica_

=2=:501. 1824. =3.= Schneider _Handb. Laubh._ =1=:627. 1892.

=4.= Bailey _Cornell Sta. Bul._ 62. 1894. =5.= Waugh _Plum

Cult._ 42. 1901.

_P. domestica_. =6.= Maximowicz _Mel. Biol._ =11=:678. 1883.

_P. hattan_ Tamari. =7.= Bailey _An. Hort._ 30. 1889.

_P. communis._ =8.= Forbes and Hemsley _Jour. Linn. Soc._

=23=:219. 1886-88.

_P. japonica_ of horticulturists (not _P. japonica_ of

Thunberg).

Tree twenty to thirty feet in height, vigorous; trunk six

to twelve inches in diameter, straight; bark thick, rough,

numerous corky elevations especially on the branches,

reddish or cinnamon-brown, peach-like; branches long,

upright-spreading, much forked, brash and often splitting at

the forks; branchlets thick, straight, glaucous and glabrous,

at first light red, growing darker the second year; lenticels

few or many, usually small but conspicuous, light in color.

Winter-buds small and obtuse, free or appressed; leaves borne

abundantly, small or of but medium size, oblong-obovate, point

acuminate or abrupt, prominent, base rounded, firm, thin,

membranaceous, margins finely and closely serrated, sometimes

in two series, teeth usually glandular; upper surface bright

green, glabrous, lower surface dull, whitish, glabrous or

slightly pubescent on the veins; veins pronounced; petioles

one-half inch in length, stoutish, tinged with red; glands few

or several, usually globose, greenish; stipules lanceolate,

very narrow, one-half inch long, caducous.

Flowers expanding early, before, with or sometimes after the

leaves, first of the plum blossoms to appear, very abundant,

three-quarters of an inch in diameter; usually three springing

from each flower-bud, often in dense clusters on lateral spurs

and lateral buds on one-year-old wood; calyx-tube green,

glabrous, campanulate or obconic; calyx-lobes acute to obtuse

glandular-serrate, erect, glabrous or pubescent; petals white,

oval, entire or crenate, with a short claw or tip; stamens

about twenty-five, shorter than the petals; anthers yellow,

sometimes tinged with red; pistils glabrous, longer than the

stamens; pedicels one-half inch long, slender.

Fruit varying greatly in season, from very early to late;

large, from one to two inches in diameter, globular,

heart-shaped or often somewhat conical; cavity deep; apex

conspicuously pointed; suture usually prominent; color varies

greatly but usually a bright red or yellow, never blue or

purple, lustrous, with little or no bloom; dots small,

numerous, usually conspicuous; skin thin, tough, astringent;

stem one-half inch in length; flesh red or more often yellow,

firm, fibrous, juicy; quality variable, of distinct flavor,

usually good; stone clinging tenaciously or nearly free, small,

rough or lightly pitted, oval to ovate, one edge grooved, the

other ridged.

A study of the botanical characters of the many Triflora plums under

cultivation fails to show any lines of cleavage whereby the species can

be divided. Of plums commonly grown in America it is not very closely

related to any unless it be _Prunus simonii_. There are several plums

from eastern and central Asia with which we are not at all familiar in

America that may show relationship with _Prunus triflora_, chief of which

are _Prunus ichangana_ Schneider,[94] _Prunus thibetica_ Franchet[95] and

_Prunus bokhariensis_ Royle,[96] the last a cultivated plum from northern

India. These, in herbarium specimens, have some characters reminding one

of _Prunus triflora_, others of _Prunus domestica_ and still others, of

_Prunus cerasifera_.

The Triflora, or Japanese,[97] plums are now cultivated in all parts of

the world where plums are grown; yet outside of Japan and China they

have been grown for their fruit less than half a century. Despite the

fact that these plums have been grown in Asia for several centuries the

wild form is not known. Indeed, there are doubts in the minds of some as

to whether it constitutes a distinct species, Maximowicz, an authority

on the flora of Japan, among others, holding that it is but a form of

_Prunus domestica_. Roxburgh in naming it gave but little definite

information in regard to the species, but the herbarium specimens of

his in the Kew Herbarium are readily identified as identical with our

Japanese plums.[98] The confusion between _Prunus triflora_ and _Prunus

domestica_ seems needless, as the points of difference between these two

species are several and very distinct and constant, the resemblances

between _Prunus triflora_ and some of the American species being much

closer. So, too, the effort, sometimes made, to make more than one

species out of _Prunus triflora_ is straining a point, for though the

types under cultivation vary considerably yet the variations are not

greater than between varieties of other species of the genus Prunus.

_Prunus triflora_ is almost certainly a native of China. According to

Georgeson and Sargent, who have made extensive botanical explorations in

the forests of Japan, there are no indigenous plum trees in that country.

Dr. K. Miyake, botanist at the Agricultural College of the Imperial

University, Tokyo, Japan, writes to this Station,[99] that _Prunus

triflora_ does not grow wild in Japan but was introduced there from China

from two to four hundred years ago. Bretschneider[100] in his treatise

on _The Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works_ says that the plum

has been cultivated from ancient times in China and this indicates that

the original habitat was in that country. Mr. F. N. Meyer, Agricultural

Explorer for the United States Department of Agriculture, who has made

extensive agricultural explorations in China, writes[101] that he has

seen many trees of _Prunus triflora_ cultivated in the Chekiang Province

and also about Canton but that he had not found the species growing wild.

Roxburgh says[102] that the shrub had been “received from China into

our gardens in Bengal.” Forbes and Hemsley[103] state that varieties of

this plum are cultivated in China and that it occurs in the wild state

in the mountains near Peking as well as on the Tsunglin range in Shensi

and Kansu. These writers are, however, uncertain as to where it is truly

indigenous.

While the above and practically all evidence points to China as the

original home of _Prunus triflora_ it is likely that the habitat of the

species cannot be accurately determined until western and southwestern

China have been explored by botanists, these regions as yet being almost

unknown to foreign scientists.

Notwithstanding the illustrious work of Kaempfer, Thunberg, Siebold and

Fortune in sending to Europe the choicest plants of Japan and China,

_Prunus triflora_ seems to have reached the Old World through America

at a very recent date. At least the species was not cultivated for its

fruit in Europe until introduced from the United States as Japanese

plums, and even yet they are but barely known in European orchards.

The species was introduced into this country from Japan about 1870 by a

Mr. Hough of Vacaville, California. According to Bailey,[104] who has

given much attention to these plums, Mr. Hough obtained his trees from

a Mr. Bridges, United States Consul to Japan. John Kelsey, Berkeley,

California, produced the first ripe fruit of the Triflora plums in

America in 1876 and 1877, and impressed by their value began recommending

them. Owing to Mr. Kelsey’s efforts the propagation of these plums was

begun on a large scale about 1883 by W. P. Hammon & Co., of Oakland,

who commemorated Mr. Kelsey’s labors by naming the plum after him.

The success of the Kelsey started the importation and origination of

varieties and a veritable boom in Japanese plums was soon under way.

This fruit is a most valuable addition to our pomology, no less than

ninety-two varieties now being under cultivation in America. At first it

was thought desirable only for the southern states, but it proved to be

nearly as hardy as the Domestica plums in the northern states and was

soon widely distributed north and south. Beyond question it has suffered

from over-praise, which has led to over-planting. As was of necessity the

case, many untested and worthless varieties were offered fruit-growers,

and these, with the failure of some of the extravagant claims for the

really meritorious varieties, have given the Triflora plums a bad

reputation with many fruit-growers. Now we have cultivated plums of this

species for forty years and there has been time for the excitement of

their discovery and the consequent reaction to abate making it possible

to arrive more nearly at their true place in pomology.

The plums of this species possess several striking features that commend

them to fruit-growers. Undoubtedly the most valuable attribute of the

Triflora plums as cultivated fruits is their wide range of adaptability.

All must admit that this group of varieties is less valuable than the

Domestica varieties where both succeed, but the Triflora plums are

adapted to a much wider range of country and of conditions than the

Domesticas. But even where both types of plums succeed the newer plum

introduces several very desirable features quite aside from additional

variety which the many distinct sorts furnish. Thus, as a species, the

Trifloras are more vigorous, productive, earlier in coming in bearing

and more free from diseases, especially black-knot and leaf-blight, than

the Domestica plums. The Trifloras are also less subject to curculio

than most of the native and European species. They keep longer and ship

as well as the better known Europeans. As compared with native varieties

the plums from Japan are larger, handsomer and better flavored and keep

and ship better. Some disadvantages are that they blossom so early as to

be often caught by spring frosts; they are quite subject to brown-rot;

for most part they are tenacious clingstones; the species, all in all, is

less hardy to cold than the Domestica plums; lastly, they are inferior

in quality to the varieties from Europe. The last fault is so serious

that, though the average for the Triflora plums is high, making them

unquestionably more desirable inhabitants of the orchard than any of the

native species, they cannot compete with the Domesticas where the two

types can be equally well grown.

The botanical differences between these Asiatic plums and those from

Europe and America are most interesting. In 1859 Asa Gray called

attention to the striking resemblances between the east coast floras of

Asia and America. The Triflora plum is one of the plants which furnishes

substantial evidence of this similarity and of the dissimilarity of the

east and west coast floras of the two hemispheres. In general aspect

the trees of the Triflora plums in summer or winter are much more like

those of the American species than like those from Europe or West Asia;

so, too, the fruits are more alike in appearance and in quality, and the

peach-like foliage of the Trifloras might easily be mistaken for that

of some of our varieties of Hortulana or Munsoniana. In the manner in

which the buds are borne and in vernation the resemblance of the Oriental

species to the Americanas, Hortulanas and Munsonianas is again most

striking. In Asiatic and American species the buds are borne in twos

and threes, while in the European species they are more often single or

double.

The importance of this similarity of the Triflora plums to the most

common American species is seen when Gray’s reason for the likenesses

between the two floras is considered. This, briefly, is that similar

types of post-glacial plants should persist in areas having like

geographical positions and like climates; hence east-coast plants in one

hemisphere should be expected to be similar to those of the east coast

of the other hemisphere and the same with the west coast. Triflora plums

are near of kin to American plums, then, because they have been evolved

under similar conditions. This is a reason why these plums from Japan are

adapted to so wide a range of country in America, and why, too, they are

so free from the fungus troubles which attack European plums, but from

which American plums suffer but little.

As might be expected from their nearness of kin the Triflora plums

hybridize readily with the American species and especially with the

Hortulanas and Munsonianas, the species they most resemble. Unfortunately

an amalgamation of the Oriental plums with the Americanas is not so

easily accomplished and that with the Domesticas is still more difficult.

Hybrids with _Prunus simonii_ are easily made and the progeny as a rule

have much merit. Hybrids of the Trifloras with our native species give

most promising results, a number of them being described in _The Plums of

New York_. The fact that the Trifloras have been cultivated for several

centuries, at least, means in their hybridization with American species

that there is an amalgamation of domesticated characters with the similar

but wilder characters of our native species.

It has been very difficult to establish a satisfactory nomenclature for

the Triflora plums now grown in America. In spite of the excellent work

of Berckmans,[105] Bailey[106] and Waugh,[107] in bringing order out of

what was at one time utter confusion, there is still a great deal of

uncertainty as to the identification of some varieties. The confusion

began with the first extensive importation of these plums from Japan when

names which the Japanese applied to classes or groups or the localities

from which the plums came were made to apply in America to definite

varieties. Many of the names under which the plums were imported have

had to be dropped and the varieties boldly renamed. Another source of

confusion has been that these, of all plums, seem most variable under

changed conditions. Local environment in many instances in America

changes somewhat the habit and appearance of varieties, making it

difficult to decide whether two or more specimens of the same sort from

different localities are identical varieties or distinct. Curiously

enough, too, the trees of some varieties of plums seem to bear unlike

fruit in different years, especially in the matter of time of ripening;

that is, trees of some varieties do not always ripen their fruit in the

same sequence, being earlier than another variety one year and possibly

later the next. All fruits are more or less variable in this respect,

but the Triflora plums are remarkably so, a fact that has added to the

confusion in their nomenclature, since it adds to the difficulty of

identifying varieties.

The cultivated varieties of _Prunus triflora_ are also very diverse as

regards tree-characters, especially as to vigor, hardiness and time of

maturity of the fruit. The differences seem to be horticultural or those

that come from cultivation, rather than botanical. Indeed, it seems

impossible to place the numerous varieties in horticultural groups that

are marked with any great degree of definiteness. A distinction of groups

based on color is sometimes made, but the one character is insufficient

to have classificatory value. In Japan, according to Georgeson, a

division of the species is made with shape as the line of division. He

says[108] “The round plums are designated by the term botankio, while

those of an oval or pointed shape are called hattankio.” The varieties

are sometimes loosely grouped into yellow and red-fleshed sorts. A

serviceable classification would have to be founded on several or a

considerable number of characters. Such a classification at present is

impossible.

=9.= =PRUNUS SIMONII= Carrière

=1.= Carrière _Rev. Hort._ 111. 1872.[109]

Tree small, of medium vigor, upright, dense, hardy except in

exposed locations, unproductive; branches stocky, long, rough,

thickly strewn with small lenticels; branchlets slender, long,

with internodes of medium length, reddish, glabrous; leaf-buds

intermediate in size, short, obtuse, free.

Leaves folded upward, oblong-lanceolate to obovate, peach-like,

narrow, long, of medium thickness; upper surface dark green,

smooth, shining, lower surface pale green, not pubescent, with

prominent midrib; margin slightly crenate; petiole short,

thick, faintly tinged red, often with four large globose glands

on the stalk.

Flower-buds numerous on one-year wood although found on spurs

on the older wood; flowers appearing very early, semi-hardy,

small, pinkish-white; borne singly or in pairs, often defective

in pollen.

Fruit maturing early; one and three-quarters by two and

one-quarter inches in size, strongly oblate, compressed;

cavity deep, wide, flaring, regular, often slightly russeted;

suture variable in depth, frequently swollen near the apex

which is flattened or strongly depressed; dark red or

purplish-red, overspread with waxy bloom; dots numerous,

small, dark colored, with russet center, inconspicuous; stem

thick, characteristically short being often one-quarter inch

long; skin of medium thickness, tough, bitter, adhering to the

pulp; flesh rich yellow, medium juicy, tough, firm, very mild

sub-acid with a peculiar aromatic flavor; of fair quality;

stone clinging, about seven-eighths inch in diameter, roundish,

flattened to rather turgid, truncate at the base, tapering

abruptly to a short point at the apex, with characteristic

rough surfaces; ventral suture narrow, acute or with distinct

wing; dorsal suture very blunt or acute, not grooved.

All that is known of the history and habitat of this species is that it

came from China in 1867 having been sent to the Paris Museum of Natural

History by Eugene Simon, a French consul in China. The spontaneous form

has not as yet been found. The general aspect of the tree is more that

of the peach than the plum and the drupes are as much like apricots or

nectarines as plums but when all characters are considered the fruit can

better be classed with the plums than with any of the other stone-fruits

named.

_Prunus simonii_ has been widely grown in America both for its fruits

and as an ornamental, but it cannot be said that it has become popular

for either purpose and only one variety of the species is now under

cultivation. As a food product the plums lack palatability and as

ornamentals the trees are subject to too many pests. _Prunus simonii_

has been successfully hybridized with _Prunus triflora_ and as secondary

crosses its blood has been mingled with that of some of the native

species as well. Most of its hybrid offspring have more value than the

parent, nearly all of them lacking its disagreeable taste. According to

an article published in _Revue Horticole_[110] a new form of the _Prunus

simonii_ was produced in 1890 from a bud sport, the fruit of which is

elongated, a little cordate, slightly unequal, and grooved on one side.

So far as can be learned this sport has no very decided merits as a

horticultural plant.

=10.= =PRUNUS AMERICANA= Marshall

[Illustration: _PRUNUS AMERICANA_]

=1.= Marshall _Arb. Am._ 111. 1785. =2.= Eaton and Wright _N.

Am. Bot._ 377. 1840. =3.= Torrey and Gray _Fl. N. Am._ =1=:407.

1840 (in part). =4.= Torrey _Fl. N. Y._ =1=:194. 1843 (in

part). =5.= Emerson _Trees of Mass._ 449. 1846. =6.= Nuttall

_Silva_ =2=:19. 1846. =7.= Darlington _Fl. Cest._ Ed. =3=:72.

1853. =8.= Torrey _Pac. R. Rpt._ =4=:82. 1854. =9.= Curtis

_Rpt. Geol. Surv. N. C._ 56. 1860. =10.= Ridgway _Proc. U. S.

Nat. Mus._ 65. 1882. =11.= Sargent _10th Cen. U. S._ =9=:65.

1883 (in part). =12.= Watson and Coulter _Gray’s Man._ Ed.

=6=:151. 1889 (in part). =13.= Coulter _Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._

=2=:102. 1891. =14.= Sargent _Silva N. Am._ =4=:19, Pl. 150.

1892. =15.= Rydberg _Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._ =3=:156. 1895.

=16.= _Ibid._ =3=:494. 1896. =17.= Waugh _Vt. Sta. Bul._

=53=:59. 1896. =18.= Ibid. _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =10=:100.

1896-7. =19.= Chapman _Fl. Sou. U. S._ 130. 1897. =20.= Bailey

_Ev. Nat. Fr._ 182, fig. 1898. =21.= Waugh _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._

=12=:231. 1899. =22.= Mohr _Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._ =6=:551.

1901. =23.= Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1448 fig. 1901. =24.=

Rydberg _Fl. of Colo._ 193. 1906.

Tree attaining a height of thirty feet, slow but strong in

growth, often shrubby; trunk thick, sometimes a foot in

diameter, short, bearing the head at three to five feet; bark

one-half inch thick, dark grayish-brown, outer surface rough,

shaggy with large scales, with age becoming smoother, giving

a characteristic aspect; branches spreading, crooked, long,

rigid, but often pendulous at the extremities, more or less

thorny, with lateral, spinescent branchlets; branchlets light

green, usually glabrous, sometimes much or little tomentose,

at first becoming brownish and later tinged with red; lenticels

numerous, large and distinct.

Winter-buds medium in size, short, acute, appressed,

reddish-brown; leaves large, obovate, oblong-obovate, or oval,

acuminate at the apex and usually rounded at the base, thin and

firm in texture, becoming somewhat coriaceous; margins sharply

serrate, almost incised, often doubly serrate, the coarse and

double serrations characteristic; teeth not glandular; upper

surface more or less roughened, light green, the lower one

glabrous or slightly hairy, sometimes pubescent, coarsely

veined, the midrib grooved on the upper side; petioles slender,

two-thirds inch in length, usually glandless; stipules long,

sometimes three-lobed, falling early.

Flowers expanding after the leaves, large, an inch in diameter,

borne in lateral umbels, two to five-flowered, mostly on

one-year-old wood; pedicels one-half inch long, slender,

usually glabrous; calyx-tube obconic, entire, glandular,

reddish on the outer, green on the inner surface, glabrous;

calyx-lobes acuminate, glabrous on the outer and pubescent

on the inner surface, reflexed; petals white, sometimes with

bright red at the base, rounded and often lanciniate at the

apex, contracted into a long, narrow claw at the base; stamens

about thirty in number, as long as the petals; anthers small,

yellow; pistils glabrous, slender, as long as the stamens;

stigma thick and truncate; anthers and pistils often defective;

when in full flower emitting a disagreeable odor.

Fruit very variable in ripening period; globose, sub-globose,

conical, oval, or sometimes oblique-truncate, usually more

than an inch in diameter, red or rarely yellowish, mostly

dull, with or without bloom; dots pale, numerous, more or less

conspicuous; cavity shallow or almost lacking; suture a line;

skin thick, tough, usually astringent; flesh golden-yellow,

juicy, meaty, fibrous, sweetish, acid and poor but often good

to very good; stone clinging or free, turgid or flattened, the

apex pointed, ridged on the ventral and slightly grooved on the

dorsal suture, surfaces smooth.

As _Prunus americana_ is more carefully studied throughout the great

territory it inhabits, undoubtedly one or more sub-species will be

described. The plums of this species in the Mississippi Valley are

distinguished from the eastern and typical form by fruits having a length

greater than the diameter, by a somewhat different aspect of tree and by

flatter seeds which are usually conspicuously longer than broad. All of

the cultivated varieties come from the western form. The plant of _Prunus

americana_ in the dry plain regions in Kansas and Nebraska becomes

shrubby in character while on the alluvial bottom lands along the streams

in this region it retains the character of a tree. In the southern limit

of its range, the leaves of this species are more or less pubescent on

the lower surface. As the species occurs throughout western New Mexico,

Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Manitoba, it differs enough,

possibly, from the eastern types to be considered a sub-species, having

a wholly different aspect of tree, silvery and somewhat scurfy twigs,

smaller, thinner and lighter colored leaves and smaller fruits with more

roundish stones.

_Prunus americana_ is the predominating native plum. It is the most

widely distributed, is most abundant in individual specimens and has

yielded the largest number of horticultural varieties of any of the

native species. Because of its prominence and comparatively high degree

of permanency of characters it may well be considered the type from

which has sprung not only its botanical varieties but several other of

the American species. Its variability, too, is shown in its many diverse

horticultural varieties, and of its adaptability it may be said that

it flourishes on nearly all soils and exposures, and is found wild or

cultivated from Maine to Florida and northward from Mexico along the

eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains well into Canada. The species was

well named by Marshall “Americana.”

This plum has not played nearly as important a part in the pomology of

America as its merits would warrant. It seems to have made an impression

almost from the first upon the Europeans who settled America, for it is

mentioned in nearly all the early records of the food products of the

newly found land, yet its cultivation can hardly be said to have begun

until the last half of the Nineteenth Century. But the early descriptions

of this and other native plums by the colonial explorers, naturalists

and botanists, show but little interest in these fruits as subjects for

cultivation, and seem to contain almost no prophecies as to the possible

development of a new orchard plant from them. It is probable that the

Damsons, which were early introduced in America, and the Domesticas,

which came at least before the Revolution, proved so adaptable to the

part of the New World in which the colonies were planted that this, even

though the best of the wild plums, offered small reward in comparison.

It is certain, however, that from the very first, Americana plums were

much used by the early settlers as wild fruits, for the histories of all

the colonies and states in which plums are found contain innumerable

references to wild plums, usually with some expression showing that they

were considered makeshifts until the European plums could be grown. Long

before white men came to America the possessors of the continent knew

and esteemed these fruits of the woods. According to some of the early

writers wild plums of this species, since found where the Americanas are

dominant, were planted and rudely cultivated by the natives.[111] It is

likely, however, that these Indian orchards were more often the result

of seeds dropped about camping places and towns rather than regularly

planted orchards. It is not improbable that the wide distribution of this

species in the Mississippi Valley and the country about and beyond the

Great Lakes is due somewhat to the hand of the Indian, of the voyageur

and of the missionary of the French regime.

The common names under which this plum passes in the states where it is

found as a wild fruit are indicative of the knowledge possessed of it

by the people. The Americana is nearly always the wild plum of eastern

America. It shares with several other species the names in various parts

of the country of Red Plum, Yellow Plum, the Horse and the Hog Plum. In

Iowa this is most often the “native plum;” in Indiana it is the Goose

plum; in Georgia, the August plum, while in the states bordering on the

Gulf it is often called the Sloe.

The domestication of Americana plums is due to the fact that the plums

of Europe will not thrive in the Mississippi Valley, the prairie states,

nor, for the most part, in the South. The European species are tender

both to cold and heat in these regions and they are attacked by those

scourges of plum culture, black-knot, leaf-blight and curculio. If,

then, the people in the West and South were to have plums at hand when

wanted, the wild species had to be brought under cultivation. Where the

two will grow side by side it is doubtful if any would choose to grow the

Americanas in preference to the Europeans or even for the sake of variety.

The Americana plum was introduced into European gardens at an early

date, for references to it are found in the pomological works of the

Eighteenth Century, Duhamel having described it in his great work on

pomology in 1768, under the name _Prunier de Virginie_, and later

Poiteau[112] gives a very good description of it under the name _Prune de

la Gallissioniere_. Just how much earlier than these dates it was taken

to the Old World cannot be said, but seeds of it are likely to have been

taken there by some of the returning explorers of early colonial times.

The important fact is that as a cultivated fruit it has made absolutely

no headway in competition in Europe with the plums of that continent

though it is to be found not infrequently as an ornamental.

The domestication of these plums began less than a century ago, not

through direct efforts in breeding them but as the result of the

selection of the best of the wild or chance trees found in many widely

separated localities. It would be most interesting to follow in

detail the introduction of variety after variety of this species into

cultivation, giving full credit to the men, many of them pioneers in

newly settled countries, through whose efforts the amelioration of the

species was begun. But space forbids, and the reader who desires to trace

more fully the history and the evolution of these plums must put together

the histories of the two or three hundred varieties of Americanas

described in the chapters on varieties.

Are the Americanas to compete with the Domesticas, Insititias and

Trifloras where all may be grown? It is very doubtful or at least not

soon. The Old World plums are so superior, speaking generally, in size,

appearance, and flavor, the qualities which appeal to those who eat

plums, that the native varieties stand small chance for popular favor.

Their place in pomology must long remain the region where the older and

more highly developed groups of plums cannot be grown. Though there are

now many times more of the Americana plums under cultivation than of the

recently introduced Trifloras, the latter are more popular and are likely

to remain so in localities where both can be grown.

The range of _Prunus americana_ is seemingly increasing, making it almost

impossible to give its present limits. The boundary line of its northern

range passes through central New York to central Michigan, southern

Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota extending northwestward to Manitoba

and reaching its western limit in Utah. It occurs locally southward

through Colorado to northern New Mexico. It is rare in Oklahoma and

does not occur in Texas, but is represented in Missouri by a pubescent

form. East of the Mississippi River the typical species occurs in all

of the states from central New York southward to northern Florida. In

this great territory it is found in many diverse soils and exposures

but responding in all to good soil and congenial environment. In the

wild state the Americana plums are most often found along the borders of

streams and swamps or in bottom lands where moisture abounds. Sometimes

they are found in swamps which may be submerged a part of the year. In

spite of a predilection for moist lands, however, the wild plants are

not infrequently found on comparatively dry uplands, seeming to prefer

soils containing considerable lime. The wild trees are usually found in

thickets, often of considerable extent.

Under cultivation the range is even greater than for the wild plant. It

is only in localities of extreme heat and cold, humidity or aridness,

that some of the many Americanas cannot be made to grow under conditions

at all favorable for orchards of any of the temperate fruits. So, too,

varieties may be found for nearly all soils which permit of cultivation.

This freedom from local attachments is one of the chief assets of the

species.

The Americana tree is commonly small, often but a bush, and usually

with a thick, thorny top. Generally the head attains a height of about

fifteen or eighteen feet and sometimes it rises to twenty-five or thirty

feet, spreading into many rigid branches which are often pendulous at

the extremities. The species may almost always be told by the rough,

shaggy, grayish bark, the large, thin, persistent plates of which give

a very characteristic shagginess. In the spring the tree is covered

with umbelliferous masses of pure white flowers and both at this season

and later with its ample foliage or showy fruit, the plant is very

ornamental. The leaves are large, oval or obovate, thin, dull and veiny,

with very jagged margins.

The fruit is reddish or yellowish or a blending of the two with the red

varieties predominating. Often the color is more nearly orange than red

or yellow—in fact pure yellow fruits cannot be found. Wild or cultivated

the fruits of the Americana plums vary greatly in season, size, shape

and flavor. In the orchard the period of maturity covers a range of

several weeks, beginning in New York in August and ending in October; in

the wild, trees in the same thicket may vary as much as three weeks in

ripening their fruit. The size of the cultivated sorts is from that of

a Damson to that of some of the Gages, the shape being roundish-oval,

or quite oval, sometimes oblique and sometimes truncate at one or both

ends and often more or less compressed. The wild fruits usually have

a pleasant flavor and this is much improved under cultivation so that

when fully ripe the flesh of some sorts is sweet and luscious, hardly

surpassed, if the skin be rejected, by the best Domesticas. The skin

is usually thick, coriaceous, acerb or astringent, and altogether very

unpleasant, making with the tenaciously clinging stones the chief

defects of these fruits. In some varieties skin and stones are far less

objectionable than in others.

The trees of the varieties we have as yet are not very manageable in the

orchard. They make a very slow growth and are hard to control, producing

at maturity many leaning trunks which are often crooked, as are also the

branches which, with the unkempt heads, give an impression of waywardness

and wildness. Nearly all of the varieties over-bear and unless

thinned the fruits are so small as to be hardly worth harvesting; not

infrequently trees die from over-bearing. A few varieties are unfruitful

but usually because of defective pollination. Nearly all sucker badly

on their own roots, and except in cold regions should be grown on other

stocks. In general there are fewer pests to combat with these than with

the European plums but yet they are far from being exempt and require on

the grounds of this Station quite as much spraying as do other plums.

Waugh, who has given the subject much study, claims that the Americanas

are not very strong sexually,[113] chiefly because of defective

reproductive organs. He found in extensive examinations that 21.2 per ct.

of the pistils were defective, ranging from nothing in some varieties

to 100 per ct. in others. More seldom the anthers were defective

and the flowers were sometimes proterandrous (the pollen maturing

before the pistil is ready to receive it), and that they were rather

frequently proterogynous (the pistils receptive before the pollen is

mature). Waugh holds that in planting these plums, provision should be

made for cross-pollination, and recommends as sorts most suitable for

inter-planting for this purpose, other varieties of the same species.

Plant-breeders have not found that this species hybridizes as readily

as most of the other cultivated native plums. This is chiefly due to

a seeming lack of affinity for other species. Nevertheless there are

numerous Americana hybrids, and it is likely that as the high quality of

the fruit and the hardiness of the trees become better known they will be

used much more for hybridizing.

The Americana plums are all hardy and some of the varieties can be grown

as far north as general agriculture is practiced. These, with the Nigras,

will probably always be the chief groups for dry, cold regions between

the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. They may also be relied upon in

the colder parts of New York and New England. The flower-buds as well

as the trees are hardy, having been known to withstand a temperature of

forty degrees below zero. Goff[114] reports that in the winter of 1896-7

the flower-buds of Domestica varieties on the grounds of the Wisconsin

Experiment Station were almost totally destroyed though the minimum

temperature recorded was only twenty-three degrees below zero, but the

flower-buds of Americana varieties were not at all injured. Since the

blossoms open comparatively late there is less damage from spring frosts

in this than in most other species even of the natives.

The number of varieties of Americana plums is a testimonial to the

merits of the species. There are about 260 varieties of them more or

less disseminated. There are many divergent types of these and since

all are far from what may be eventually expected from the species the

number of varieties will undoubtedly greatly increase and in still

other directions. In the meantime the great majority have fallen by the

wayside. The weeding-out process seems to be in this case the chief agent

of progression. A fault with the varieties now before the public is that

many of them are so similar that a difference can hardly be detected. The

elimination of the great majority of the varieties of this species now in

the catalogs and a much more judicious selection of varieties for future

dissemination would relieve pomology of the burden it now carries in the

numerous sorts of Americanas.

=PRUNUS AMERICANA MOLLIS=[115] Torrey and Gray

=1.= Torrey and Gray _Fl. N. Am._ =1=:407. 1840. =2.= Sargent

_10th Cen. U. S._ =9=:65. 1883. =3.= Coulter _Cont. U. S. Nat.

Herb._ =2=:102. 1891. =4.= Sargent _Sil. N. Am._ =4=:19. 1892.

=5.= Waugh _Bot. Gaz._ =26=:50. 1898.

_P. americana lanata._ =6.= Sudworth _Nom. Arb. Fl. U. S._ 237.

1897.

_P. lanata._ =7.= Mackenzie and Bush _Trans. Acad. Sci. St.

Louis_ =12=:83. 1902.

_Prunus americana mollis_ is a western and southwestern form of _Prunus

americana_, the sub-species being distinguished from the species by the

amount and character of the pubescence on the leaves and shoots. The

leaves, petioles and shoots of this plum are soft-pubescent, almost

tomentose, the tomentum being pale in color and usually very dense; the

calyx-lobes are pubescent on both sides and the pedicels are appressed

and densely pubescent. According to Bailey, there is a form of this

sub-species “with flowers as completely double as those of St. Peter’s

wreath, or similar spireas.” This double-flowering plum we have not seen.

It is impossible to give the range of _Prunus americana mollis_ as the

woolly-leaved plum of the west gradually passes into the smooth-leaved

species of the east and the two forms are not infrequently mixed in the

South and Southwest; or possibly it would be better to say that they run

into each other though the extreme forms are sufficiently distinct as to

be readily mistaken for separate species. It can only be said that it

is to be found in the greatest abundance in the region extending from

southern Iowa through Missouri. Only two varieties of this plum, Wolf and

Van Buren, are in general cultivation, both of which originated in Iowa.

In neither fruit nor tree-characters do these differ greatly from the

Americana plums.

A plum with pubescent leaves belonging to the Americana series

known locally as the Big Tree plum, occurs from western Tennessee,

south-westward through the extreme southern portion of Missouri, through

Arkansas, southern Oklahoma, extending westward in central Texas, at

least, as far as the Colorado River and reaching its southwestern limit

in northern Mexico. From specimens of this plum in several herbaria and

from studies made of it in the field by W. F. Wight of the United States

Department of Agriculture, it would seem that this plum is a distinct

species, its chief distinguishing character being the great size attained

by the tree. So far as it is known the Big Tree has no cultivated forms

unless it be Bilona, supposed to be a hybrid between this species and

_Prunus triflora_, now growing on the grounds of F. T. Ramsey, Austin,

Texas.

=11. PRUNUS HORTULANA= Bailey[116]

[Illustration: _PRUNUS HORTULANA_]

=1.= Bailey _Gar. and For._ =5=:90. 1892. =2.= Sargent _Sil.

N. Am._ =4=:23, Pl. 151. 1892. =3.= Waugh _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._

=10=:99-105. 1897. =4.= Mohr _Torrey Bot. Club Bul._ =26=:118.

1899. =5.= Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1450, fig. 1901. =6.= Mohr

_Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._ =6=:551. 1901.

_P. americana_, var.? 7. Patterson _List Pl. Oquawka_ 5. 1874.

Tree attaining a height of thirty feet or more, vigorous

in growth; trunk sometimes a foot in diameter; trunk and

branches rough and shaggy becoming furrowed in age; bark

gray-brown, thick and containing deposits of red cork cells

which show as bright red blotches or as thick layers when the

bark is sectioned, these deposits, especially in quantity,

characterizing the species; branches very spreading and open,

twiggy, slender, thorny; branchlets light green at first,

becoming reddish-brown, glabrous and glossy; lenticels few,

large, very coarse, raised, characteristic of the species.

Winter-buds plump, very small, obtuse, appressed; leaves one

and three-quarters inches wide to five inches in length,

long-oval with a tapering, pointed, acuminate apex, peach-like,

base abrupt, texture thin, becoming leathery, margins serrate,

almost crenate, sometimes in a double series, glandular;

upper surface smooth, glossy, glabrous; lower surface light

green, almost glabrous except on ribs and veins which are very

pubescent, with characteristic orange color, midrib grooved

above, rounded below, very prominent; petioles slender, an inch

in length, pubescent on the upper side, tinged with red; glands

two to eight, small, globose, mostly on the petioles.

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.

There is an abundance of herbarium material to show that _Prunus

hortulana_ as originally described by Bailey, with the varieties

named as the type, leaving out Wild Goose, which is but doubtfully

included, and as represented by Waugh’s “Wayland group,” is to be found

wild in Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, Missouri and

northern Arkansas, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. The writer has

not seen material from states adjoining those named but the species is

probably more widely spread than the range given indicates. Further,

the cultivated varieties named by Bailey as members of his species,

to which should be added at least American Golden, Benson, Columbia,

Crimson Beauty, Dunlap, Kanawha, Leptune, Moreman, Reed, Wayland and

World Beater, are so similar in all their characters and constitute a

group so distinct from any other species that it is impossible to place

them otherwise than in a distinct species. A group of hybrids could

hardly be so uniform, and, moreover, these varieties contain characters,

like late blooming, late fruiting, color, texture and flavor of fruit,

leaf-serrations and deposits of red cork-cells in the bark, which other

native species do not have, thereby shutting out the probability of the

hybridity theory in which the supposed parents are _Prunus americana_

and _Prunus angustifolia_. Lastly, and most convincing, varieties of

the species come true to seed, which of course, would not be the case

were these plums hybrids. From seed borne in 1893 this Station has had

six seedlings of World Beater and four of Golden Beauty attain the age

of sixteen years with more or less fruit for thirteen successive years.

The seedlings could hardly be distinguished from the parents and showed

no pronounced characters of either of the species of which _Prunus

hortulana_ has been supposed to be the hybrid offspring.

Of the sixteen varieties named as certainly belonging to this species,

ten came from wild plants or seeds. Two of the remainder came from

planted seeds and the origin of the remaining four is not known. One of

the varieties from the wild, Golden Beauty, if its history as commonly

given is correct, came from the Colorado River in western Texas. The

Golden Beauty now under cultivation almost certainly belongs to _Prunus

hortulana_, though it differs somewhat from other varieties of the group,

but how it could have come from the wild in western Texas, so far from

the usual range of the species, is at present unexplainable. This and

other idiosyncrasies of distribution were reasons given by Bailey and

Waugh for calling this species a group of hybrids. A careful study of

localities from which all other Hortulana varieties than Golden Beauty

have come shows them to be well within the range of _Prunus hortulana_.

The fact that Golden Beauty is perfectly hardy at Geneva, and according

to Waugh fairly so at Burlington, Vermont, suggests either that what we

have as Golden Beauty did not originate in south central Texas or that

the plant from which it came must have been introduced there within

comparatively recent times.

_Prunus hortulana_ gives to American pomology a very distinct and

valuable group of plums which fortunately are adapted to a wide range

of conditions, especially of climate. The Hortulanas are particularly

well suited to the Mississippi Valley and southern states and fruit well

as far north and east as New York. The product of Wayland, Kanawha and

Golden Beauty, best known of the plums under discussion, is especially

suitable for preserves, spicing and jelly, being unsurpassed by any other

of our plums excepting the Damsons for these purposes. They are quite

too acid and the flesh clings too tenaciously to the stone for dessert

plums or even for ordinary culinary purposes. These plums, having firm

flesh and tough skins, ship and keep splendidly and since they are the

latest of the native plums in ripening, extend the season for this fruit

very materially. The Wayland-like plums make very good stocks upon which

may be grafted not only the varieties of the same species but those of

the other native species as well. A point of especial merit with these

plums as stocks is that they do not sucker as do most other species.

Unfortunately they cannot be propagated from cuttings and the difficulty

of obtaining seed at present precludes their use very generally. The

Hortulana plums hybridize freely with other native species and their

hybrids are such as to commend this species very highly to plum-breeders

for hybridization.

Waugh[119] has given the name _Prunus hortulana robusta_ to a group of

hybrid plums of which _Prunus triflora_ and various native varieties are

the parents. For most part these hybrids resemble the American more than

the Asiatic parent. Since these plums differ so among themselves it is

doubtful if more can be said as to the characters of Waugh’s group than

to mention the above resemblance. Some thirty or more varieties fall into

this group of which America, Golden, Juicy, Ruby, Waugh and Gonzales are

chief.

=PRUNUS HORTULANA MINERI= Bailey

[Illustration: _PRUNUS HORTULANA MINERI_]

=1.= Bailey _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:23, 1892. =2.= Waugh _Vt.

Sta. An. Rpt._ =10=:103. 1897. =3.= Britton and Brown =2=:247,

1897.

It is impossible from present knowledge to say certainly whether the

Miner-like plums put by Bailey into a botanical sub-division of _Prunus

hortulana_ are extreme variations of the species or, as Bailey in his

last accounts and Waugh at all times have supposed, are hybrids between

_Prunus hortulana_ and _Prunus americana_. It is certain that all of

these plums are intermediate in some characters between the two species

named; neither botanists nor pomologists can agree as to whether certain

varieties belong to the one or the other botanical division. There are,

however, in several herbaria, specimens from the wild, and from different

localities, that indicate that there is a distinct plum toward the

northern limit of the range of _Prunus hortulana_ which, if a natural

hybrid, is of so ancient hybridity that the plants now come measurably

true to type. The chief representatives of the Miner-like plums under

cultivation, as Miner, Forest Rose, Prairie Flower and Clinton, are so

like these wild plums as to lead the writer to believe that Bailey’s

botanical sub-division is justified and is worth continuing even though

a considerable number of the varieties now put with Miner, most of which

have originated under cultivation, are hybrids and that the wild plums

may have come from natural hybrids of more or less remote time.

The sub-species differs from the species in having shorter, stiffer,

less graceful branches; leaves smaller, thicker, rougher and of a

bluish-green cast; the blossoms of the two are much the same but those of

the sub-species open a few days earlier; the fruits of the sub-species

are larger than those of the species, lighter red, have more bloom, are

less firm in texture, ripen earlier, yet later than those of any other

species, and are quite different in flavor, having more nearly the taste

of the fruit of _Prunus americana_; the stones, as well as the fruits,

are very different, being in the sub-species larger, broader, flatter,

smoother and less pointed. The differences in fruit and stone, and to

some extent in the leaves, can be seen if the color-plates of Forest Rose

and Wayland be compared.