UTAH HYBRID CHERRY 247 



with a tendency, evidently derived from the sand plum, 

 to make a zigzag growth of shoots. The foliage has 

 every appearance of being a combination of the dwarf 

 cherry and the sand plum. The leaves are slightly 

 trough -shaped, or conduplicate, as they hang on the 

 plant, while those of the sand plum are strongly 

 conduplicate, and those of the cherry are perfectly 

 flat. In outline, the leaves are oblong -ovate. They 

 are dull glossy above and much reticulated be- 

 neath, with rather coarse, obtuse serratures, and a 

 firm, thick texture. 



The Utah Hybrid cherry, as I have grown it, 

 appears to possess no immediate value, because of the 

 poorness of its fruit ; but the tree is hardy and pro- 

 ductive, and it indicates that there may be combina- 

 natious of dwarf plums and cherries which shall have 

 distinct horticultural merits, particularly for dry or 

 arid soils and trying situations. It also shows how 

 evanescent is the line of demarcation between the 

 cherry and the plum. 



Retrospect 



We have now traced in some detail the curious 

 and intricate history of the evolution of cultivated 

 varieties of our native plums and cherries. We have 

 seen that, although the varieties already named and 

 impressed into domestication number something like 

 two hundred, the greater part of them have been 

 merely fortuitous or accidental variations, and that the 

 history of even the oldest of them runs back scarcely 

 more than three -fourths of a century, whereas most 

 of them are very recent. Five accepted species or 



