STATE HOETICULTDRAL SOCIETY. 383 



and time of ripening. At these two points we have found seemingly 

 two veiy different things or species of plums. But, if the student 

 starts from the Chickasaw Bluffs, opposite the mouth of the Arkansas 

 river, and follows the so-called Prumis Chicasa up the valley of the 

 Arkansas river, he will find the tree of that species continually de- 

 creasing in size. Where this river enters Kansas, his plum tree is a 

 shrub three to five feet high; where it leaves Kansas, one to two feet, 

 and then in the centre of the great Colorado plain, the little dwarf 

 thing before spoken of six to twelve inches m heighth, when he will 

 have before hiin what Botanists have called Prunus Pumila.^ or the 

 Sand plum of the plains. Yet the two are one and the same species, 

 and the Sand plum is the remote ancestor of the Chickasaw plum. 

 The seeds of the Sand plum were carried down by the two great 

 rivers, the Red and Arkansas, into the valley with its rich soil, longer 

 summers, warmer climate and humid air, and after man^- generations 

 the result is as we now find it. In the same way can we trace the 

 Prunus Americana up the Missouri river, until it runs it into the 

 dwarf Sand Cherry of the North; and by a study of these two dwarf 

 forms, between Montana and New Mexico, he might be able to find 

 and raise a dozen distinct forms up to the grade of species. So we 

 also find all the so-called species differing widely in their different 

 habitats, and all gradually and perfectly grading the one into the 

 other at places where they intermingle; but nevertheless, we will fiud 

 true types of all the species where they are all growing together. 



With the two most prominent species the only marked specific dif- 

 ference seems to be that Prunus Chicasa is not found indigenous 

 north of Illinois. But the other, Prunus Americana, seems to cover 

 nearly the whole continent. These two species seem to reach their 

 highest excellence in fruits, as found wild, the last named in Wiscon- 

 sin and Northern Iowa, and the former in Tennessee and adjoining 

 states. With these two species this paper has to do. Of the other 

 'species we have ^s yet no varieties worthy of cultivation, though 

 Prunus umhelata is said to give delicious fruit in southwestern Texas. 

 Basset's American is an example of Prunus Maratiina, for which we 

 have no use. This much is necessary for somewhat of an understand- 

 ing of our subject. We will now take up the practical part. 



PLUMS FOR PROFIT. 



We gather from the foregoing that our wild plums, in some of their 

 species and varieties, are fruits natives of and adapted to cultivation 

 in every part of this country and beyond, both north and south. Are 



