PLUMS AND PLUM CULTURE IN MICH- 

 IGAN. 



BY T. T. LYON— READ AT THE DECEMBER MEETING OF THE STATE 



POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AT IONIA. 



NATIVITY OF THE PLUM. 



The real source from which have sprung the improved varieties of the plum 

 as cultivated among us to-day, seems to be one of the uncertainties of the 

 obscure past. Even its botanical cognomen {Prumis Domestica), would seem 

 to indicate that, prior to its scientific recognition, it had been subjected to the 

 modifying influences of artificial culture, so far as to have yielded to the seduc- 

 tive arts, by means of which, in so many cases, man has been able to win the 

 means of subsistence, and even of luxury from the untamed elements with 

 which the prodigal hand of nature has so profusely surrounded him. It is 

 true that this species of the plum is supposed to have originated in southern 

 or western Europe, and is often to be met with, in at least a semi-wild state, 

 in the forests of those countries ; but it seems to be by no means certain 

 whether these are to be considered as the wild type, from which the improved 

 varieties have sprung, or the degenerated offspring of cultivated sorts. 



It is, however, by many, supposed that the native country of the original 

 type of our cultivated plum is Syria; and that it found its way to Europe by 

 importation, at a comparatively early period in the history of the human race ; 

 so early, indeed, that the evidence of its migration are lost among the myths 

 of the classical or dark ages. 



Indeed, so greatly do these improved sorts differ among themselves, either 

 in wood or fruit or both, that it does not seem to be quite susceptible of deter- 

 mination that some of these sorts may or may not be referable to the Bullace 

 {Primus Insititia), or to the sloe {Prunus Spinosa), while some varieties, cer- 

 tainly, so far as the fruit is concerned, manifest a very supposable relationship 

 with the American cherry plum {Primus Cerasifera), or, at least, with the 

 Chickasaw {Prunus Chicasa), or the wild red or yellow plum {Prunus 

 Americana). 



AT HOME ITS OUR CLIMATE. 



Whatever may be the fact in the case, although a very few of our improved 

 varieties, and, among them that standard of high quality the Reine Claude, or 

 G-reen Gage, are of European origin, this fruit seems never before to have 

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