104 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



nese varieties usually have their buds in threes, as in the Burbank, 

 or sometimes even in fours or fives, as in the Kerr, and these buds 

 are small and blunt. Three flowers commonly spring from each 

 flower-bud of the Japanese varieties, and it was this circumstance 

 which led Roxburgh to call the species P. triflora, or three-flowered 

 plum ; while in the Domestica type the flowers are more commonly 

 one or two from each bud. The bhds are often aggregated ui3on 

 short spurs in the Japanese varieties, and the flowers are then crowded 

 into showy masses, as in the Ogon. Upon the longer shoots, where 

 the buds are but three at a joint, the clusters are less evident, as in 

 the Kelsey, yet their glomerate character is always more marked than 

 in the Domesticas. Brief characters of separation may be drawn be- 

 tween P. domestica and P. triflora, as follows: 



Common Plums [P. domestica): Trees of moderate and more or 

 less crooked growth, with not roughened gray or purplish and often 

 pubescent young wood and single, pointed buds and large, protruding 

 leaf -scars ; flowers usually one to two from a bud, large and opening 

 wide, mostly long-stalked ; leaves mostly large, thick and heavy in 

 texture and prominently netted and often pubescent below, dull above, 

 varying from ovate to round-ovate to broadly obovate in outline, blunt 

 or the point not pronounced, conspicuously obtusely toothed or some- 

 times almost jagged ; fruit globular or oblong or even oboval but not 

 prominently pointed, with a large, flat, pointed and winged pit. 



Japanese Plums {P. triflora): Trees of strong growth, with 

 widely spreading, long, forked branches, which are light colored and 

 marked with corky elevations, the young growth not pubescent, the 

 buds three or more at the joint, and the leaf-scars often small ; flow- 

 ers mostly two to three from each bud, generally rather small and 

 short-stalked, and sometimes not opening wide ; leaves firm but rather 

 thin in feeling and not pubescent nor rough-netted below, although 

 the whitish veins are pronounced, very smooth and often somewhat 

 shiny above, commonly long-obovate or sometimes nearly elliptic in 

 outline and the point usually prominent, the edges marked with fine, 

 close serratures ; fruit globular or more often conical, and with a deep 

 depression at base and a very prominent suture, the flesh clinging to 

 or free from the smooth or lightly pitted, scarcely winged pit. 



But these Japanese plums are more nearly allied botanically to our 

 native plums, particularly to the Wild Goose type, than they are to 

 the Domestica class. This may be seen even in the twigs of the Wild 

 Goose. And this similarity to our native species is really, to my 

 mind, one of the strongest points in their favor, for it indicates that 

 they will be likely to adapt themselves to a very wide range of our 

 great country, inasmuch as we may fairly assume that similarity of 



