from Botanical and Economic Aspects. 223 



A few, like Nos. 2 and 5, have rough cling-stone fruits, 

 the firmer pulpy bands in such specimens being adherent to 

 the stone, some like Nos. 7, 8 and 1 1 are only slightly cling- 

 stone, while the majoritj' are free-stone. The last condition 

 is specially true for the red-yellow and yellow varieties. 



The taste of the fruits is determined largely by the presence 

 or absence of sugar, tannin and acid constituents. Wide 

 variations occur in the relative quantity of these. Thus, in 

 small, greenish-purple varieties like No. i, that mature late in 

 the season, the amount of sugar is small, the proportion of 

 tannin large, so that they are inedible. Increase in size of the 

 purplish-blue and blue-black types is generally accompanied 

 by marked increase in the sugar content, and reduction in the 

 tannin when the fruit is fully ripe. On this account the taste 

 of No. 7 is highly agreeable, and ranks it with the best of our 

 summer fruits. On the other hand, No. 5, even when ripe, has a 

 decided tannin grip as in some of our coarser bird-cherries. 

 In the purplish-red and red fruits of Nos. 8 and 9, the 

 amounts of tannin and of acid are considerable, but as we pass 

 to the reddish-yellow and yellow varieties, the tannin decreases, 

 and the acid slightly so, till in Nos. 10 and li of the table 

 the fruits become of superior quality. It will thus be observed 

 that the coarsest types of fruits are the small, late maturing 

 ones of greenish-purple hue, and that the blue-black, at the 

 end of one series of types, also the rcd-}-ellow and yellow at 

 the end of another, are almost free from tannin and are rich in 

 sugars and mild acids. 



(_/) Maturation in Fruit. — In many of our highly-cultivated 

 fruits, such as the apple, pear, peach and plum, the period for 

 ripening of the different varieties may extend over two to three 

 months, but we rarely see such variation on a wide scale in a 

 wild type. The beach plum presents such a condition. 



In an average season along the New Jersey coast, the 

 earliest bushes to ripen are those which bear reddish-purple 



