lo Bulletin 62. 



Common Plums {Pninus domestica). — Trees of moderate and 

 more or less crooked growth, with not roughened gray or purp- 

 lish and often pubescent young wood and single pointed buds and 

 large, protruding leaf-scars ; flowers usually one to two from a 

 bud, large and opening wide, mostly long-stalked ; leaves mostly 

 large, thick and heavy in texture and prominently netted and 

 often pubescent below, dull above, varying from ovate to round- 

 ovate to broadl}^ obovate in outline, blunt or the point not pro- 

 nounced, conspicuously obtusely toothed or sometimes almost 

 jagged ; fruit globular or oblong or even oboval but not promi- 

 nently pointed, with a large, flat, pointed and winged pit. 



Japanese Plums i^Prunus triflora). — Trees of strong growth 

 with widely spreading long forked branches which are light 

 colored and marked with corky elevations, the young growth not 

 pubescent, the buds three or more at the joint, and the leaf-scars 

 often small ; flowers mostly two to three from each bud, gener- 

 ally rather small and short-stalked and sometimes not opening 

 wide ; leaves firm but rather thin in feeling and not pubescent nor 

 rough-netted below although the whitish veins are pronounced, 

 very smooth and often somewhat shiny above, commonly long- 

 obovate or sometimes nearly elliptic in outline and the point 

 usually prominent, the edges marked with fine close serratures ', 

 fruit globular or more often conical and with a deep depression 

 at base and a very prominent suture, the flesh clinging to or free 

 from the smooth or lightly pitted scarcely winged pit. 



But these Japanese plums are more nearly allied botanically to 

 our native plums, particularly to the Wild Goose type, than they 

 are to the Domestica class. This may be seen even in the twigs 

 on page 5, of which No. 4 is the Wild Goose. And this simi- 

 larity to our native species is reall}', to my mind, one of the 

 strongest points in their favor, for it indicates that they will be 

 likely to adapt themselves to a very wdde range of our great 

 country, inasmuch as w^e may fairly assume that similarity of at- 

 tributes has been produced by similarity of environment. This 

 conviction of their kinship with our native species and the know- 

 ledge that they come from the eastern Asian region from which 

 we draw so mau)^ of our adaptive plants, has led me to recom- 

 mend them strongly for trial even in our more trying fruit regions ; 



