TYPICAL VAR1ET1KS 181 



below La Crosse, Wisconsin, some years ago, and 

 introduced by E. Markley, of La Crosse. 



The Weaver, a loading native plum, was found 

 wild near Palo, Iowa, by Mr. Weaver; introduced by 

 Eimis & Patten in 1875. O. M. Lord tells me that 

 plums indistinguishable from the Weaver are wild 

 in profusion on the St. Peter or Minnesota River. 



In this way, about a hundred choice forms of the 

 native plum of the Northwest have been gathered and 

 sorted and given names ; and they are so much more 

 hardy and reliable in that region than the European 

 type of plum that they will probably form the chief 

 foundation from which the future orchard plums of 

 the northern prairie states will spring. They are 

 already grown to an important commercial extent. 



The Americana Group of Plums 



It will be necessary, before proceeding further 

 with the historical data, to discuss the natural species 

 from which the plums that we have mentioned have 

 come. The layman may not know that the genus 

 Prunus, to which the plums and cherries belong, is 

 one of the hard knots to botanists. That is, the 

 plants are widely variable, and there are few pro- 

 nounced or constant marks to distinguish one type 

 of variation from another. The numerous forms 

 grade into each other so imperceptibly and inextri- 

 cably that the genus cannot be readily broken up into 

 species. But these genera which are the despair of 

 the systematic botanist are the inspiration of the evo- 

 lutionist. In them the philosopher thinks that he 

 can trace the influences of soil and climate and the 



