44 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



appear to mature at the same time, and heterostyled or bisexual forms are seldom 

 or never found. 



Myrobalan. This plum has been extensively used as a stock, but has been 

 rapidly losing favor, the Marianna or seedlings of P. americana being generally 

 substituted. 



Japanese Plums have not yet been long enough known [1896] in the United 

 States to have found their final position in our estimation. They are an impor- 

 tant and desirable acquisition. Several varieties have been planted in Vermont, 

 and, for the most part, are sufficiently hardy to justify their planting. Abun- 

 dance usually fruits here, bearing heavy crops. All blossoms of Japanese varie- 

 ties, however, were killed by cold weather during the winter of 1895-'96. They 

 seem to be considerably weaker in their pistils than varieties of the domestica 

 group, but this does not interfere with their fruitfulness. 



Americana Group. The plums of the americana ^roup resist cold much 

 better than any others. They are the hardiest we have. ^»icr?<"«no varieties 

 now hang loaded with fruit beside the Japanese, domestica and Chickasaw va- 

 rieties, which are entirely bare. They are to be especially recommended for 

 planting in cold and exposed localities, where the domestica varieties are uncer- 

 tain. In general the fruit is inferior to that of the domestica varieties, although 

 many of the best sorts are very acceptable on the table and quite salable in the 

 market. A mericana seedlings seem to make good stocks for working varieties of 

 the domextica and other groups. Wild and cultivated forms of this group are 

 peculiarly delicate in sexual organization, to an extent which sometimes inter- 

 feres materially with the crop. Most varieties probably require cross- pollination. 

 The blossoms themselves make provision for this by numerous contrivances, the 

 most efficient of which are proterogyny, the suppression of pistils, and the select- 

 ive power of the pistils in receiving pollen. 



The variety mollis of P. americana is represented in cultivation by several 

 horticultural forms: although the origin of the horticultural forms from the bo- 

 .tanical variety does not seem to be necessary, but rather doubtful in some cases. 

 The leaves and pedicels, especially in cultivated varieties, are found to be pubescent 

 in all degrees, and it is quite possible for a distinctive degree of pubescence to 

 appear as a garden character, although the variety might be genetically referable 

 to the smooth type. Several varieties not usually put in this section of the ameri- 

 cana group are quite pubescent enough to be so classified. The southern distri- 

 bution of this botanical variety might raise a question as to whether or not it is 

 as hardy as the type when planted northward. 



The variety nigra of P. americana is here proposed in place of Alton's P. 

 nifjra, and in order to satisfy the necessities of horticultural and botanical in- 

 tercourse. Gray's Manual of Botany combines all these diverse forms under one 

 name. Professor Bailey's recent revision of "Field, Forest and Garden Botany'' 

 does the same, and in his paper on "The Cultivated Native Plums and Cher- 

 ries" Professor Bailey says, speaking of the characters used to distinguish P. 

 nigra from P. americana: " I am unable to find any constancy in these charac- 

 ters. . . . I am obliged, therefore, . . . to unite P. /i/.r/m withP. amer;'- 

 cana. This I regret the more because it is undoubtedly true that there are two 

 well-marked wild varieties — possibly species — passing as P. americana.'''' It 

 is evident that we must have some way of conveniently designating such an im- 

 portant difference, and the application of the name P. americana, var. nigra, 

 seems to me to dispose of the case in best accord with the natural relationships 

 on the one hand and with our acquired habits of nomenclature on the other. 



