THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 103 



was unable to find wild plants. Much of the interior and western 

 portion of China is unexplored botanically, and it is not strange that 

 the aboriginal type of this interesting fruit is yet undiscovered. Ac- 

 cording to Bretschneider, the plum was anciently cultivated in China, 

 which indicates an indigenous origin. 



Maximowicz, Hemsley and other botanists seem to be confused 

 with the resemblance of P. trij^ra to P. domestica, and it has also 

 been said by various pomologists that some of the plums recently 

 imported from Japan are only varieties of the Domestica type. While 

 botanical specimens of the two may strongly resemble one another, 

 the species are nevertheless readily distinguished, even in winter, and 

 I have not yet seen a plum of Japanese origin which can be referred 

 to P. domestica. In fact, the Domestica plums seem to be little known 

 in Japan. Professor Georgeson, writing upon this point, makes the 

 following statements: "The varieties of this species, which is our 

 common plum, have been introduced in Japan, but are not generally 

 known, if known at all, beyond the environments of foreign settle- 

 ments and those regions reached by the Kaitakushi in its attempts 

 to introduce and naturalize foreign fruits. The Kaitakushi was the 

 name of a department of the government (commonly translated colo- 

 nization department), which, however, was abolished long ago. Its 

 object was to colonize the northern island with Japanese, and to this 

 end large numbers of fruits and other economic plants from the West 

 were introduced, the climate there being somewhat like that of central 

 and northern Europe." If the Domestica plums are little known in 

 Japan, it may also be said that the Japanese, plums appear to be 

 wholly unknown in Europe,* unless possibly in Russia, and it is 

 therefore not probable that any serious confusion of varieties has 

 occurred between the two species. It is very important, theil, that a 

 complete record of this species should be made while yet it is confined 

 to comi^aratively isolated areas of the globe. 



Botanical position of the Japanese plums. — There is a striking 

 difference in the winter characters of trees of Japanese and Domestica 

 plums. The JajDanese varieties tend to make long and forking 

 branches, with a light-colored, rough, somewhat peach-like bark, 

 which is marked by numerous corky elevations, while the Domestica 

 are closer and more bushy growers, with a dull gray or purplish, tight, 

 smooth bark. But the greatest differences lie in the buds. For ex- 

 ample, Coe's Golden Drop, a Domestica plum, in common with 

 all varieties of the species, has single and pointed buds. The Japa- 



*Naudin, for instance, in his admirable "Manual de I'Acclimateur" (1887), 

 knows the species (which he calls, erroneously, P. Jciponica) only from an ac- 

 count of the recent introductions into California contained in the Gardener'' s 

 Chronicle. 



