WAUGH ON SAND PLUMS 221 



acquainted with P. Watsoni would seldom be troubled in separat- 

 ing them in the field. With herbarium material alone, a case of 

 doubt would be hard to settle. 



The sand plums are confused in several trade catalogues, and 

 in the minds of some persons who ought to keep such things 

 straight, with the sand cherry, Prunus Besseyi, and still more 

 seriously with the Utah Hybrid cherry, which Bailey supposes to 

 be a hybrid of P. Besseyi and P. Watsoni. This confusion is 

 entirely unnecessary, and it is to be hoped that it will quite dis- 

 appear as soon as attention can be fixed upon the facts. 



The natural range of Prunus Watsoni seems to be quite cir- 

 cumscribed. Sargent locates it upon "sandy streams and hills, 

 south and southeast Nebraska and central and western Kansas." 

 As a matter of fact, its distribution within this limited range is 

 by no means general. In Kansas, where I have been entirely 

 familiar with it, the sand plum is confined almost exclusively 

 to the sandy lands in the immediate valleys of the Republican 

 and Arkansas rivers and their tributaries, although it is found 

 more sparsely in the Smoky Hill and Kansas River valleys. 

 Mason says: "Have not noted it east of Wabaunsee county." 

 (S. C. Mason, "Variety and Distribution of Kansas Trees," page 

 8.) The species is commonly reported from Oklahoma, but 

 though I have frequently been as far west as Kingfisher and El 

 Reno, I have never seen it. The dwarf sand plums which I have 

 frequently found in that territory, and which I have sometimes 

 seen brought to the market, were of the species Prunus gracilis. 

 Still I think it probable that P. Watsoni grows in Oklahoma, at 

 least in some of the western counties. This opinion is strength- 

 ened by the introduction of undoubted varieties of this species 

 from the Panhandle of Texas (see below). 



Early settlers in Kansas, before their own orchard plantings 

 came into bearing, used to find the sand plums well worth their 

 attention. In July and August everybody for fifty miles back 

 from the Arkansas sand hills used to flock thither to pick, and it 

 was an improvident or an unlucky family which came off with less 

 than four or five bushels to can for winter. Whole wagon loads 

 of fruit were often secured, and were sometimes offered for sale 

 in neighboring towns. 



The fruit gathered from the wild trees was of remarkably fine 



