66 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



leading varieties are Caddo Chief, Jennie Luca«, Lone Star, New- 

 man, Pottawattamie, Kobinson and Yellow Transparent. 



E. The Mariaima Group. — The IMariaDna and De Caradeue 

 plums — and probably, also, th.e Hattie — constitute a distinct 

 class from any of the foregoing, differing in habit of tree, veiy 

 early flowering, elliptic-ovate rather small and finely serrate dull 

 leaves, glandless leaf -stalks, and soft spherical, very juicy plums 

 of a " sugar and water '' character, and broad ovate stones which 

 are scarcely pointed and are prominently furrowed on th?? front 

 edge. The botanical position of these plums has been a subject of 

 speculation, to which I have added my full share of confusion.* T 

 have devoted more study to these plums than to any others, and I 

 am now convinced that the De Caradeue is myrobalan. and 

 that the Marianna is either the same species or a hybrid between 

 it and Siome American plum, possibly the Wild Goose. This, I 

 am aware, is a startling conclusion, particularly as the IMarianna 

 has come to be so extensively used as a stock to replace the myro- 

 balan, which appears to be growing in disfavor. Before enter- 

 ing into detail concerning the origins of these plums, it w'Ul be 

 useful to our inquiry to clear up some of the history of the m\TX)- 

 balan plum. 



The word myrobalan (or mj^obolan), as a noun, is used tx) desig- 

 nate various small tropical f raits which are used in the ai-ts, 

 chiefly for taDning purposes. It is now commonly applied to the 

 fruits of the species of Terminalia, of the family Combretaceae, 

 which are imported from India, The word was early applied to 

 a small plum grown in Europe, probably because of some resem- 

 blance in size or other characteristics to the myrobalans of com- 

 merce. This plum has had a curious history. The first 

 undoubted reference to it which I know is in Clusius' Rariorum 

 Plantarum Historia, 1601. Clusius gives a good figure of it, but 

 says that it was not generally known. Some people thought th.it 

 it came originally from Constantinople, and others that it came 

 from Gaul. Clusius leans toward the latter view. He calls it 



* In my Nursery-book (p. 252) I referred them to Pyrunus umbrellata, Ell. 



