CORNELL UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT STATION BULLP^TINS. 251 



quality is not high. This popularity is due to its productiveness, earli- 

 ness, beauty, good shipping qualities, and to the circumstance that it was 

 early introduced to cultivation. This variety is grown from Iowa, Michi- 

 gan, and New York to Georgia and Texas. 



10. The Wild Goose group of plums, as a whole, is well suited to the 

 middle latitudes. The most prominent members of the group are Golden 

 Beauty, Indian Chief, Missouri Apricot, Moremau, Wayland, and Wild 

 Goose. 



11. The Miner group differs from the Wild Goose or true Hortulana 

 group by dull and comparatively thick leaves which are conspicuously 

 veiny below and irregularly coarsely toothed and more or less obovate in 

 outline, and by a rather late and very firm fruit and a flat and nearly or 

 quite smooth stone. The varieties are all much alike. In a wild state, 

 this form of native plum probably grows from Illinois to Tennessee and 

 Arkansas. 



12. Ten varieties are referred to the Miner group, of which the most 

 prominent is the Miner. This variety was the first native plum to receive 

 a name from horticulturists. Its history runs back to 1814. Seventy 

 years ago it was known as Old Hickory and General Jackson. Next to the 

 Wild Goose, the Miner is the best known of the native plums. It is hardy 

 in northern Illinois and is popular in the central and some of the southern 

 states. 



13. The Chickasaw plums are characterized by slender, spreading and 

 zigzag growth, comparatively small lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate con- 

 duplicate (or trough-like) leaves which are shining and closely and finely 

 serrate, and by a nearly red or yellow soft stringy fleshed fruit which is 

 more or less dotted, and a clinging broad roughish stone. In a wild state, 

 the Chickasaw plum is usually thorny and the thorns persist in a few cul- 

 tivated varieties. The species grows wild from southern Delaware to Flor- 

 ida and westward to Kansas and Texas. 



14. The most important varieties of Chickasaw plum are Caddo Chief, 

 Jennie Lucas, Lone Star, Newman, Pottawattamie, Robinson, and Yellow 

 Transparent. The Newman is the most generally known and this is hardy 

 in central New York. The Chickasaws are best adapted to the central 

 and southern states. Many of them are not hardy in Michigan and New 

 York. 



15. The Marianna and DeCaradeuc constitute a distinct class or group 

 of plums, and the Hattie is evidently allied to them. They are to be asso- 

 ciated with the myrobalan plum. DeCaradeuc is probably myrobalan, 

 and Marianna appears to be a hybrid. The history of the myrobalan is 

 obscure, but it is clearly of Old World origin. It is largely used as a stock, 

 and there are varieties grown for fruit. 



16. The Marianna has assumed great importance because of its use as a 

 stock for many plums and allied fruits. Its merits are the ease with which 

 it grows from cuttings, and the facility with which it unites with other 

 species. 



17. The beach plum or Primus maritima, of the Atlantic coast, is in cul- 

 tivation both for ornament and for fruit. As a fruit plant it is represented 

 only in Bassett's American, a fruit of little value. 



18. The Pacific wild plum, Prunus suhcordata. was introduced to cul- 

 tivation in 1889, as a possible fruit plant, but its merits are not yet 

 determined. 



19. Hybrids appear to occur between the Wild Goose and the peach. J, 



