16 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACER. 
The fruit, which ripens between the middle and the end of August, is oblong-oval, and an inch to an 
inch and a quarter long, with a tough thick orange-red skin nearly destitute of bloom, and yellow rather 
austere flesh adhesive to the stone, which is nearly oval, compressed, an inch in length, two thirds of 
an inch in breadth, thick-walled, and acutely ridged along the ventral, and slightly grooved on the 
dorsal suture. 
The seed is ovate and compressed, with a thin brown testa and a short exserted radicle. 
Prunus nigra is distributed from Newfoundland’ through the valley of the St. Lawrence, and 
westward to the valleys of the Rainy and Assiniboine Rivers and the southern shores of Lake Mani- 
toba.? It is found in the neighborhood of streams in rich alluvial soil, or grows on low limestone hills 
in open glades with Hawthorns and Viburnums, or along the borders of the forest.’ 
The wood of Prunus nigra is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained ; it is rich bright red-brown, 
with a lustrous surface and thin lighter colored sapwood, and contains many thin medullary rays. 
The 
specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6918, a cubie foot weighing 43.17 pounds. 
Jacques Cartier, on his second voyage to North America, landed in September, 1535, on the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, near the island of Orleans, which he named Isle de Bacchus, on account of the 
wild grapes which he found growing in the woods, and was there the first European to see the Canada 
Plum-tree ;* its dried fruit he had already seen in the canoes of a tribe of Indians whom he had met 
during the previous season in the Bay of Chaleur.’ 
Prunus nigra was introduced into English gardens in 1773° by Lee & Kennedy,’ nurserymen at 
Hammersmith near London; and the earliest botanical description was drawn up from the cultivated 
tree. 
Prunus nigra is often planted in Canadian gardens, and occasionally in those of the northern 
states, for its fruit or for the beauty of its large slightly fragrant flowers.° 
1 Teste Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 167. 
2 Richardson, Arctic Searching Exped. ii. 288. — Brunet, Cat. Vég. 
Lig. Can. 20.— Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. 1867-69, Appendix, 
8 (Pl. Manitoulin Islands) ; 1879-80, 54°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 
i, 124. 
The range of the Canada Plum has been much extended through 
cultivation, and it is now naturalized and grows spontaneously in 
the neighborhood of houses and along the borders of highways in 
northern New England and New York in the territory adjacent to 
It is to be 
looked for growing indigenously in northern Minnesota, and is 
the Canadian boundary, and in eastern Massachusetts. 
probably naturalized in Wisconsin and Iowa, and some of the va- 
tieties of cultivated Plum-trees which are believed to have been 
taken from the woods of these states can be traced to this species. 
8 Prof. D. P. Penhallow notices that the leaves of Prunus nigra, 
when it grows on limestone hills in the Province of Quebec, are 
pubescent on the lower surface, and that they are glabrous or 
puberulous when it grows on bottom-lands. Prunus Americana 
under similar conditions shows the same variations in the valley of 
the Mississippi River. 
4 «Pleine de moult beaux arbres de la nature et sorte de France : 
comme chesnes, ormes, fresnes, noyers, pruniers, ifs, cedres, vignes, 
aubépines qui portent fruit aussi gros que prunes de damas, et 
autres arbres.” (Voyages de Decouverte au Canada, 2" Voyage, 34 
Reprint].) 
6 «Tis ont aussi des prunes qu’ils stchent comme nous faisons 
(Idem. 1° Voyage, 17. 
See also Hakluyt, Voyages, ed. Evans, iii. 258.) 
6 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ii. 165. 
7 James Lee (1715-1795) ; a native of Selkirk, Scotland, was 
employed in the gardens of Syon House, a seat of the Duke of 
[Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 
pour Vhiver, et les appellent Honesta.” 
Northumberland, and afterwards in those of the Duke of Argyll 
at Whitton ; in 1760, in partnership with Louis Kennedy, he estab- 
lished a nursery at Hammersmith, which soon became famous and 
for many years was considered the most important in the world. 
Lee was a correspondent of Linneus, who dedicated to him a genus 
of Old World tropical plants related to the Grape Vine (Leea) ; 
he was the author of an Introduction to Botany, arranged according 
to the Linnzean system, which passed through several editions and 
was long held in high repute, and in 1774 he published a catalogue 
of the plants and seeds grown in his garden. 
Louis Kennedy (1775-1818) made many contributions to horti- 
cultural literature toward the end of the last century, and articles 
from his pen are found in the Botanical Repository (1799-1804). 
Kennedya, a genus of Australian leguminous plants, well known in 
gardens, was dedicated to him by the French botanist Ventenat. 
Lee & Kennedy were exceedingly active and successful in in- 
troducing new plants, and maintained collectors in North and 
South America, and, in partnership with the empress Josephine, 
one in South Africa also. They first cultivated in England severat 
North American plants, as well as the China Rose and Fuchsia 
coccinea, which was the first of its genus introduced into gardens. 
8 The fruit of Prunus nigra is sold in large quantities in Cana- 
dian markets ; it is eaten raw or cooked, and is made into preserves 
and jellies. Like the fruit of all Plum-trees, it varies in size and . 
shape, in the thickness and color of the skin, and in the flavor and 
juiciness of the flesh ; and some attention has been paid in Canada 
to selecting the best wild varieties for cultivation. Varieties of 
this species are propagated and sold by nurserymen in some of the 
western states, and to it can be referred the well known Purple 
Yosemite, Quaker, and Weaver Plums. 
