108 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. T. 



4. Prunus Americania grows the farthest north of any of the 

 native plums, and its varieties are the hardiest of any. The 

 species also grows as far south as northern Mexico. The range of 

 adaptability of its varieties may, therefore, be assumed to be 

 very great. The species is naturally variable, and is, therefore, 

 attractive to the horticulturist. 



5. The fruit of Pnmus Americania is firm and meaty, usually 

 somewhat compressed or flattened, often marked by a distinct 

 suture, dull in color which ranges through different shades of red 

 and purple to an ill-defined aoid blotched orange. The skin is 

 thick and tough, often acerb, and covered with a pruinose bloom. 

 The stone is large and more or less fiattened and winged, and 

 is sometimes nearly or quite free, and the surface is either slightly 

 pitted or perfectly smooth. 



6. Forty-five varieties are referred to Prunus Americania in the 

 preceding lists. The most popular of these are Cheney, Deep 

 Creek, De Soto, Forest Garden, Itaska, Louisa, Purple, Yosemite, 

 Quaker, Eollingstone, Weaver, Wolf. The American varieties 

 succeed best, on the whole, in the northern States of the Missis- 

 sippi valley, as in Wisconsin, Iowa and Mnnesota. Some of them, 

 however, are successfully grown in Texas, and on the Atlantic 

 slope so far siouth as thirty-seven degrees or thirty-eight 

 degi'ees. 



7. Prunus hortulana grows wild in the Mississippi valley 

 from northern Illinois to Arkansas, extending eastward into 

 Kentucky and Tennessee and possibly farther, and in the south- 

 west spreading over a large area of Texas. It is naturally variable 

 and has given many important cultivated varieties. It has never 

 been recognized as a distinct species until this year. There are two 

 or three- distinct types represented in the species, one of which — 

 the Miner group — appears to possess some radical points of 

 difference from the typical representatives of the species. 



8. The fruit of Pmnus hortulana is firm and juicy, spherical or 

 spherical-oblong, never flattened, and in color ranges through 

 several shades of bright red to clear pure yellow. The skin is thin, 

 often marked with small dots, and is usually covered with a thin 

 bloom. The stone always cUngs ; it is comparatively small, rough. 



