Preface xvii 



Mountains, except as their fruits compete with ours 

 in the markets. A discussion of California plum cul- 

 ture would be out of place in this book, and would 

 be the more useless as the field is covered by Califor- 

 nian books, published in California and written by 

 Californians. 



The pomologist who endeavors to make use of 

 those chapters in which varieties are named and 

 described will soon discover a certain lack of uniform- 

 ity in the treatment. In the chapters describing the 

 native plums considerable effort is made to name 

 every variety which has ever been put before the 

 horticultural public; whereas from the chapter nam- 

 ing and describing the Domestica plums a large 

 number of varieties have been omitted. I am sure 

 that this will appear, on reflection, to be excusable. 

 The native varieties are all new, the facts of their 

 origin and distribution are often undiscoverable, there 

 are few authoritative descriptions of them accessible, 

 and even the spelling of the names is often in doubt. 

 The list of native plums is certainly too long at the 

 present time, and many of the varieties named in this 

 book should be discarded at once. Perhaps for this 

 very reason it is the more desirable that their names, 

 histories and descriptions should be first collected and 

 put on record. 



The Domesticas, on the other hand, have been 

 before the public ever since there was any horticul- 

 ture in America. All the old varieties are described 

 in Coxe, Manning, Prince, Downing, Barry, Thomas 

 and the other fruit books. The student bent on 

 research can always find those descriptions. But 

 many of the varieties themselves have been repeatedly 

 tested and found wanting. They have been finally 

 and permanently discarded from American pomology. 

 There is no need of putting into this book the descrip- 



