XXVI.] THE CULTIVATED PLUM FLORA. 419 



and perhaps in somewhat different directions, had they 

 been left to shift for themselves. 



All this is well illustrated in our cultivated plums. 

 Few plants are more generally esteemed or more 

 widely grown in this country than the plums, and yet 

 there are none of our leading fruits which possess 

 so little and so unsatisfactory literature. The natural 

 history of our plums is wholly unwritten. There is 

 not even one good American book devoted entirely 

 or even largely to the cultivation of this fruit, and 

 there is no full account of the interesting botany of 

 the American plum flora. It is, therefore, impossible 

 to determine the various epochs in the evolution of 

 our plums, although it is the purpose of this paper 

 to discuss the general features of this history. 



The common garden plum is native to Europe or 

 Asia, and the statement of this fact is sufficient for 

 my purpose. In 1806, M'Mahon mentioned a "select 

 list" of thirty plums, all but one or two of which 

 are undoubtedly of European origin. Coxe, in 1817, 

 selected eighteen kinds, "which comprise a succession 

 for a private garden," of which seventeen are of 

 European origin, and the single American variety 

 (Cooper) was long since lost to cultivation. Our 

 plums, therefore, like other fruits, were almost 

 wholly European varieties seventy -five years ago. 

 But, like these other fruits, varieties originating in 

 America were found to possess, on the whole, rather 

 better features than the imported sorts, and the for- 

 eign element began slowly to disappear. By the time 

 that the Downings published the revision of the 

 "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America" (1872), there 

 were two hundred and eightj^- three varieties of the 



