The Japanese Plums. 15 



Botankio is a sub-group of this, characterized by round fruit. 



2. Beni-Smomo, or red- fleshed plums. Three names are 

 chiefly used, evidently somewhat loosely, for varieties in this 

 group: Honsmomo, Yonemomo, and Uchi-Beni. 



3. Smomo proper, comprising fruits " either colored or not in 

 the skin, but never colored inside." 



This classification is of little service so far as the varieties 

 known in America are concerned, and it shows that we may as 

 well discard entirely the loose group-names of the Japanese. The 

 methods of cultivating fruits in Japan enforces the adoption of 

 local and generic names, and there seems to be little attempt to 

 apply specific names with the certainty and distinctness with 

 which they are used here and in Europe. "Plum trees," Pro- 

 fessor Georgeson writes, "are rarely found planted in orchard 

 form, as are the pears, for instance, but they are scattered here 

 and there about the dwelling houses or in the gardens, wherever 

 the situation may appear to be suitable. It is also exceptional to 

 find trees that receive much care or training. The bearing 

 branches are often broken off and carried away bodily. It is not 

 uncommon during midsummer to meet a pedestrian with a plum 

 branch loaded with green fruit, on his shoulder. It may be a 

 present from a friend, or it may be intended for sale, but it shows 

 at all events that the owner has no great regard for his tree. ' ' 

 In such conditions of cultivation it is not strange that no specific 

 attention is given to names of the different forms. 



The earliest attempt made in this country to classify and 

 describe the varieties of Japanese plums, was an excellent essay 

 by ly. A. Berckmans in the Proceedings of the Georgia Horticul- 

 tural Society for 1889. This essay, in modified form and with 

 illustrations, appeared in American Agriculturist for January, 

 1890. 



Characteristics of the Japanese plums. — About thirty varieties of 

 Japanese plums are now named and more or less disseminated in 

 this country, and others are known by numbers or indefinite 

 appellations. Nearly all of the named sorts, if, in fact not all 

 varieties, are direct importations from Japan ; but unnamed seed- 

 lings are now coming to be known to experimenters and the time 

 must be near at hand when a varied American progeny will come 



