422 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XXVI. 



the other given him by an Indian chief. It is not 

 clear from which lot this plum sprung. The plum 

 gained some notice when it came into bearing, and 

 was known as Old Hickory and General Jackson. In 

 1823 or 1824 Dodd moved to Illinois and settled near 

 Springfield, taking some sprouts of his plum with him. 

 The plums soon attracted attention among Dodd's 

 neighbors, and the variety was called in its new home 

 William Dodd and Chickasaw Chief. The year fol- 

 lowing William Dodd's removal to Illinois, his brother 

 moved to Galena, Illinois, and took some of the 

 plums. About Galena the plum became known as the 

 Hinckley. Its cultivation spread gradually in the west, 

 because it was found to endure climates which are too 

 severe for the European types of plums. It after- 

 wards found its way eastward,* and appears to have 

 been disseminated by a Mr. Miner, of Pennsylvania, 

 whose name it now bears. Here, then, is the begin- 

 ning of a new race of plums, but the type attracted 

 little attention in the east because the European plums 

 thrive readily east of the Great Lakes and from Penn- 

 sylvania northwards. 



As late as 1872 only three varieties of native plums 

 are admitted in Downing's great work, — the Miner, 

 Newman and Wild Goose. But in the Mississippi 

 Valley, and southeastward to the Atlantic, this new 

 race found great favor. There is comparatively a 

 small part of the United States which appears to be 

 suited to the European type of plums, the northeastern 

 region and the Pacific coast being the chief. The 

 great interior basin suffers from great heats, droughts, 

 and dry, trying winters, circumstances to which the 

 European plum is at best very imperfectly adapted. 



