from Botanical and Economic Aspects. 2 1 9 



paper. But noteworthy variations occur in the plants, as 

 regard size and vigor, color of the twigs and buds, also size, 

 shape and hairiness of the leaves. Such variations have 

 already attracted attention. Thus Gray says " It varies when 

 at some distance from the coast (New Jersey and southward), 

 with the leaves smoother and thinner, and the fruit smaller." 

 That it varies is undoubted, that it does so geographically as 

 above stated is not the writer's experience. Wood says : 



" The fact is worthy of empliasis that on any one bush fruit 

 and seed are very uniform in every respect, the greatest 

 difference in individual fruits from any one plant being in the 

 size, though even in this the variation is comparatively slight." 



The important lines of variation shown by the fruit may be 

 arranged under the following heads : {a) color, (b) weight, (<r) 

 size and shape, {d) consistence, {e) taste, (/) time of maturation, 

 {g) comparison of the stones. 



{a) Fruit-Color. — The color variations of the fruit consti- 

 tute the most striking difference to the eye, but it would be 

 impossible to segregate groups that are sharply demarcated 

 from each other. The average color of about 65 per cent of 

 the fruiting plants of any one locality is a rich black-blue, that 

 is slightly lightened in effect by a whitish waxen bloom. This 

 seems to be the color which, by natural selection, becomes 

 dominant in the localities I have visited, though it is not to be 

 regarded as the primitive type. From more primitive forms 

 than this, three diverging lines of variation seem to be trace- 

 able, one gradually receding to more and more primitive types, 

 a second advancing to the more highly specialized forms that 

 end in the yellow fruited examples. The former is made 

 up of those types which pass in color from black-blue to 

 bluish, bluish purple, green purple and finally purplish 

 green. The last of these seems, for many reasons, to be 

 the primitive form. Along the second line successive steps 

 can be taken through bluish purple, purplish red, and 



