Plum Trees as Ornamental Plants 359 



another artist returns from Japan we are always to be 

 treated to a new lot of plum blossom and iris pictures. 



Anyone who has been in a large plum orchard at 

 blossoming- time, especially where the trees were of 

 Japanese or American species, must have been struck 

 with their great beauty. A single tree is often orna- 

 mental, but a mass of trees in blossom have a different 

 and perhaps a more strikingly beautiful effect. 



As a class, the varieties of the Wayland group of 

 native plums are probably the most attractive of any 

 grown in this country. They are graceful in habit, 

 with good foliage, and the blossoms are peculiarly 

 abundant, graceful, and clean in their snowy white- 

 ness. Reed has the best formed tree, but Moreman 

 and Wayland have the better flower clusters. 



Next to these probably stand the members of the 

 Wildgoose and Chicasaw groups. They are grace- 

 ful in general habit, with fresh, smooth twigs and 

 clean, shining foliage. The blossoms are borne in 

 great profusion, in showy graceful clusters. 



The Americana and Miner varieties have a differ- 

 ent habit of growth, and a different effect of foliage, 

 but a no less decorative air. Nor are their blossoms 

 less ornamental. In the Nigra group a conspicuous 

 tinge of pink shows through the larger, showier blos- 

 soms, and we have, in the case of special varieties, 

 really the most handsome flower effect to be seen 

 among plums in America. Cheney may be mentioned 

 as of special merit for its good habit of growth com- 

 bined with its extra large and showy blossoms. Mr. 

 J. W. Kerr has in his collection a striking full-double 

 variety of Primus amcricana, which has not yet been 

 introduced to the trade, but which is a plant of real 

 merit. It blossoms profusely with large clusters of 

 flowers, the character of which is only weakly sug- 

 gested by the accompanying engraving. 



