RUSSIAN AND OTHER FRUITS. 307 



The following additional varieties are believed to have been selected aad 

 introduced by A. H. Griesa, of Kansas, viz: Bjram, Evatt, Preib, Kemer, 

 and Smith. 



Although these have ostensibly been selected for propagation as stated, little 

 is yet known of them beyond what is stated by their introducers. Their real 

 value must depend almost wholly upon the results of extensive trial over an 

 extended region. 



THE PLUM. 



The cultivated plum of the northern states {Pninus domestic i), which, ac- 

 ■cording to Dr. Gray, is supposed to have sprung from the Sloe, is an introduc- 

 tion from Europe. It proves hardy and successful from New England west- 

 ward to and including the lower peninsula of Michigan, although almost uni- 

 versally attacked by the curculio, which usually ruins the fruit, unless efficient 

 means are employed to save it. 



The fruit is also, in many localities, attacked by what is known as *'the rot," 

 which appears to be either accompanied or caused by fungus, which manifests 

 itself in connection with the decay, which usually occurs just prior to the 

 season of maturity, often ruining nearly or quite the entire crop of fruit. 



The foliage is also frequently attacked, toward the end of sammer, by a 

 malady which causes the premature ripening and dropping of the leaves, leav- 

 ing the fruit but partially grown and the wood yet immature, in which case 

 the tree is often either injured or killed by the cold of the following winter. 

 By some persons this malady also is attributed to the attacks of a minute or 

 microscopic fungus, although no sufficient examination is known to have been 

 •made to determine the question. 



The branches, and occasionally even the trunk, of the tree are also liable 

 to be attacked by a fungus known as black knot, and botanically as Sphceria 

 morbosa, which occasions unsightly protuberances, and, if neglected, is quite 

 sure to ruin the tree, but which may generally be overcome by the prompt cut- 

 ting away and burning of the diseased parts, to prevent the dissemination of 

 the spores. 



These various maladies have proved so serious, that in many localities once 

 considered favorable, the growing of this species of plums has been nearly or 

 quite abandoned; although in the northern portions of lower Michigan, m 

 ) tortious of the more easterly states, as well as in Canada eastward of the 

 great lakes, either from more favorable climatic inflaences or because the 

 inducing causes have not yet reached them, this fruit is still abundantly suc- 

 cessful ; becoming in such localities not infrequently a very considerable 

 source of revenue. 



Farther westward, either from lower extremes of temperature or a more 

 arid clitnale, or possibly from a combination of the two, this species of plum 

 fails almost wholly. 



The native plum of the south {Prunus chicasa), grows in the wild state in 

 Kentucky and southwestward ; and in those regions seedlings of this, among 

 which may be named several known by the common title Wild Goose, have 

 been found productive and profitable under cultivation. These have been 

 tested at the north and found abundantly hardy; but, although they often 

 bloom freely there, either from imperfection of the bloom or from other and 

 unknown cause, they almost invariably prove obstinately unproductive, and 



