250 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thick and glossy, and are evergreen. The white flowers are borne in 

 small racemes, which are shorter than the leaves. The small black fruit 

 soon becomes dry and is not edible. The species grows wild along rivers 

 from North Carolina to Florida and Texas. 



REVIEW. 



I. PLUMS. 



1. The native plum industry dates from the dissemination of the Wild 

 Goose some forty years ago. It is only within the last decade, however, 

 that this industry has assumed great importance. 



2. Five species and one botanical variety of native plums are now in 

 cultivation for their fruits. 140 named varieties are described in the preced- 

 ing pages, very many of which are wild varieties transferred to cultivation, 



3. Nearly all the commercial varieties belong to three species — Prunus 

 Americana, P. horfulana and P. angustifolia. These species grow wild 

 in regions east of the Rocky mountains. 



4. Prunus Americana grows the f urtherest north of any of the native 

 plums, and its varieties are the hardiest of any. The species also grows so 

 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 Prnnus Americana is firm and meaty, usually somewhat 

 compressed or flattened, often marked by a distinct suture, dull in color 

 which ranges through various shades of red and purple to an ill defined 

 and blotched orange. The skin is thick and tough, often acerb, and 

 covered witb a pruinose bloom. The stone is large and more or less 

 flattened and winged, and is sometimes nearly or quite free, and the sur- 

 face is either slightly pitted or perfectly smooth. 



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

 ing lists. The most popular of these are Cheney, Deep Creek, De Soto, 

 Forest Garden, Itaska, Louisa, Purple Yosemite, Quaker, Rollingstone, 

 Weaver, Wolf. The Americana varieties succeed best, on the whole, in the 

 northern states of the Mississipi valley, as in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Min- 

 nesota. Some of them, however, are successfully grown in Texas, and on 

 the Atlantic slope so far south as 37° or 38°, 



7. Prunus horiulann grows wild in the Mississippi valley from northern 

 Illinois to Arkansas, extending eastward into Kentucky and Tennessee 

 and possibly further, and in the southwest 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 form the typical representatives of the species. 



8. The fruit of Prunus hortulana is firm and juicy, spherical or spher- 

 ical-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 clings; 

 it is comparatively small, rough, turgid, sometimes prolonged at the ends, 

 but is never prominently wing-margined, 



9. The Wild Goose is the best known of the native plums, although its 



