42 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



P. crrasifera Ehrh. Myrobalan or Cherry Plum. Differs from the last 

 in a more slender habit, often thorny: flowers mostly smaller; leaves smaller, 

 thin, smooth, and finely and closely serrate; fruit globular and cherry-like, rang- 

 ing from the size of a large cherry to over an inch in diameter, with a depression 

 about the stem, in various shades of red or yellow. 



P. iri flora Roxb. Japanese Plum. A strong growing tree, perhaps native 

 to China, numerous varieties of which have recently been disseminated in the 

 United States. Flowers usually densely fascicled; leaves and shoots smooth 

 and hard, the former obovate or oblong-obovate, prominently pointed, and finely 

 and evenly serrate; fruit usually conspicuously pointed, red, yellow, or purple, 

 with a very firm flesh and commonly a small stone. 



NATIVE SPECIES. (TREES.) 



P. americana Marsh. Common Wild Plum. The type distinguished by 

 entire calyx lobes, which are pubescent on the inner surface; stone turgid; 

 leaves oval or slightly obovate; petioles mostly without glands. Tree spreading, 

 ragged, thorny, 8-20 feet high: flowers large, white, on slender pedicels; leaves 

 very coarsely veined, never glossy or shining ; fruit more or less flattened upon 

 the sides, firm and meaty, the skin tough and glaucous and never glossy, ripen- 

 ing through yellow to red. Occurs wild from New Jersey and New York to 

 Montana and Colorado. It varies southward, in Texas and New Mexico repre- 

 sented mostly by the variety moUis. 



Var. tnoUis Torr. & Gray. Has the leaves and pedicels pubescent, espe- 

 cially when young. 



Var. )i if/ I'd. Canada Plum; Red Plum. [P. nigra Ait.: P. ainrricana T. 

 & G. and 6th ed. Gray's Manual.] In its extreme forms easily distinguished 

 by the glandular-serrate calyx lobes, glabrous on the inner surface: compressed 

 stone: broadly oblong-ovate to obovate leaves, with petioles bearing two glands. 

 Flowers large, white, with short, thick peduncles conspicuously marked by the 

 scars left by the falling of the bud scales; pedicels dark red, slender, glabrous; 

 calyx tube broadly obconic, dark red on the outer and bright red on the inner 

 surface; fruit oblong-oval, orange-red; stone nearly oval, compressed. Occurs 

 wild from Newfoundland west to Rainy and Assiniboin rivers, in Canada, and 

 commonly in the New England states, where it is found along roadsides and in 

 waste places. 



P. hortulana Bailey. Wild Goose Plum. A strong, wide-spreading, small 

 tree, with smooth, straight twigs, and a peach-like habit; flowers rather small, 

 often very short-stalked; leaves narrow ovate or ovate- lanceolate, thin and firm, 

 flat, more or less peach-like, smooth and usually shining, closely and obtusely 

 glandular-serrate; fruit spherical, bright colored and glossy, lemon yellow or 

 brilliant red, the bloom very thin, juicy, with a clinging, turgid and roughish, 

 small, pointed stone. Occurs wild in the Mississippi valley in the neighborhood 

 of St. Louis. 



Var. mineri Bailey. Differing more or less from the species by the dull and 

 comparatively thick leaves, which are conspicuously veiny below and irregularly 

 closely toothed and more or less obovate in outline, and by a smoother and more 

 americana -\\kQ stone. 



Hyb. marianna. This plum is thought to be a hybrid between the Myroba- 

 lan and the Wild Goose. (L. H. Bailey, Cornell Exp. Sta. Bull. 38, p. 3"2.) Per- 

 haps one or two other varieties have a similar origin. 



P. chicasa Michx. [Properly P. an gusti folia Marsh.] Chickasaw Plum. 

 Slender tree, 12-20 feet high; slender, zigzagged twigs; smaller, lanceolate or 



