The Native Dwarf Cherries. 263 



have never been made out ; but the following account will, I hope, 

 clear up the subject. All botanical evidence goes to show that 

 the plant (see Fig. 3, PI. II) is a hybrid of Prunus Bcsseyi and 

 the sand plum, P. Watsoni :'^' and its history, which I shall now 

 relate, bears out this statement. The Black Utah Hybrid cherry, 

 — which, I think, is the one now in cultivation, — originated with 

 J. E. Johnson, now deceased, at Wood River, Nebraska, on or 

 near the Platte river, probably sometime in the sixties. Mr. 

 Johnson grew native dwarf cherries and sand plums in his gar- 

 den. Seeds of these cherries were sown. Only one tree of the 

 original batch of cherry seedlings was considered worthy of 

 attention, and this tree was propagated. Mr. Johnson soon 

 afterwards moved to Utah, from whence, it appears, he distributed 

 this variety as the Utah Hybrid cherry. There is no species of 

 plum or cherry known to which this Utah Hybrid can be referred, 

 and it is probable that it is a natural hybrid between the cherries 

 and plums growing in Mr. Johnson's garden. It is an almost 

 exact intermediate between the western dwarf cherry and the 

 sand plum. The fruits are cherry-like in form and in the char- 

 acter of the pit, but they have the " bloom" of the plum. Fig. 

 3, Plate II, shows the Utah Hybrid natural size, as grown upon 

 our grounds this year. It is a very handsome fruit of deep ma- 

 hogany color, with a Hght plum-like bloom, ripening about the 

 first of August at Ithaca. The quality is poor. The flesh is soft 

 and juicy and rather plea.sant, but it lacks body ; and the skin, in 

 our .specimens, is very bitter. The pit is very like that of Pninus 

 Besseyi. The plant is a tree-like bush, three or four feet high, 

 with a tendency, evidently derived from the sand plum, to make a 

 zigzag growth of shoots. The foliage has every appearance of 

 being a combination of the dwarf cherry and the sand plum. The 

 leaves are slightly trough-shaped or conduplicate as they hang on 

 the plant, while those of the sand plum are strongly conduplicate 

 and those of the cherry are perfectly flat. In outline, the leaves 



*Pruncs Watsoni, Sargent, Garden and Forest, vii. 134 (Apr. 4, 1894). 

 This is the Sand plum of Kansas and Nebraska. It is allied closely to the 

 Chickasaw plums, but is a bushy shrub, 3 to 5 feet high. I have grown the 

 plant for several years, and had given it a name ; but Professor Sargent 

 anticipated me in the publication. 



