1 8 BULI.ETIN 62. 



Connecticut, reports keeping Satsuma two weeks in his office in 

 good condition, and they were fairly ripe when picked. 



Varieties. — An attempt will now be made to describe the varie- 

 ties of Japanese plums which are known in North America. The 

 nomenclature is so much confused and many of the varieties so 

 imperfectly known, that I cannot hope to have arrived at just 

 conclusions in regard to the proper names and descriptions of all 

 of them ; but the attempt will serve to classify and fix our know- 

 ledge of the varieties and I hope that it will lead others to make 

 a more prolonged study of them. It is particularly difficult to 

 determine which is the proper type of any variety in those cases 

 in which two or three fruits pass under the same name, and I 

 presume that some of the following names may be found to be 

 wrongly applied. On the other hand, it is very probable that 

 some of the varieties which are here kept distinct may prove to 

 be identical. Some of the varieties I know only from printed 

 descriptions, but I have added them for the purpose of making 

 the monograph complete. Many growers have given me great 

 aid in the preparation of this descriptive list, amongst whom I 

 should mention P- J. Berckmans, of Augusta, Georgia, and S- D. 

 Willard, Geneva, N. Y., without whose cooperation I could 

 scarcely have attempted this essay. 



It has seemed best to discard entirely the Japanese class-names, 

 as Botan, Botankio, Hattankio, Sumomo and the like, as they only 

 lead to confusion. I have therefore renamed some of the varie- 

 ties which are passing under indefinite names or numbers. The 

 introduction of the name Abundance for the plum first known as 

 Yellow-Fleshed Botan has been severely criticized in some quar- 

 ters, but I have always felt that the renaming was not only justi- 

 fiable but essential to lucid nomenclature. If the other Japanese 

 generic names had been supplanted several years ago, much of 

 the present confusion would have been avoided. 



In rating the size of the varieties, Kelsey, of course, must stand 

 10 ; and in comparison with this standard even 7 or 8 represents a 

 large plum. 



It does not seem to be necessary to adopt any classification of 

 these plums, and I have therefore listed them alphabetically. The 

 most serviceable classification would be one founded upon color of 

 skin and flesh. The varieties might be arranged as follows : 



