Wild Goose Plum 



493 



eastern Texas. Its maximum height is 8 meters, with a trunk diameter of 2 

 dm. 



The bark is thin, scarcely fissured, but broken into thick, persistent, dark 

 brownish red scales; the twigs are nearly 

 smooth or short-hairy, becoming entirely 

 smooth, red or purple and shining, finally 

 dull and dark. The leaves are rather thin, 

 lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 3 to 10 cm. 

 long, sharp or somewhat taper-pointed, more 

 or less rounded at the base, margined by 

 very small gland-tipped teeth, smooth and 

 shining above, paler and dull beneath; the 

 slender leaf -stalk is i to 1.5 cm. long, bear- 

 ing two glands near the base of the blade. 

 The flowers appear in March and April be- 

 fore the leaves, in nearly stemless, 2- to 4- 

 flowered umbels, on slender, smooth pedicels 

 8 to 15 mm. long; the calyx-tube is bell- 

 shaped, smooth, the lobes oblong, blunt- 

 pointed, and fringed with glandular hairs; 

 petals clawed, white, obovate, rounded; filaments and pistil smooth. The fruit, 

 which ripens in June or July, is oval to globose, about 1.5 cm. in diameter, bright 

 red, somewhat shining, with a slight bloom; flesh subacid and juicy; stone ovoid, 

 swollen, somewhat ridged on one edge, conspicuously grooved at the other. 



The fruit of the Chickasaw plum is gathered from wild trees and sold in the 

 markets of the southern States; the tree is also cultivated. Nurse r}^men cata- 

 logue about a dozen named varieties of it. The wood is rather soft, weak, light 

 brown; its specific gravity is about 0.68. 



Fig. 451. Chickasaw Plum. 



9. WILD GOOSE PLUM Prunus hortulana Bailey 



Also called Garden wild plum, this grows in woods and thickets along streams, 

 from Mar}dand to Kansas, Alabama and Texas. It is a small, low-branched 

 tree, sometimes a shrub. Its maximum height is about 9 meters, with a trunk 

 diameter of 3 dm. 



The outspreading branches are without spines; the ver}^ thin bark is dark 

 brown, usually peeling off in thin plates; the twigs are stout, stiff, smooth and 

 red-brown, becoming darker with age. The leaves are firm and thick, ovate, lanceo- 

 late or oval, 10 to 15 cm. long, taper- pointed, wedge-shaped or rounded at the 

 base, glandular-toothed, dark green and shining, with broad, impressed midrib 

 above, paler and hairy along the prominent yellowish midrib beneath; the leaf- 

 stalk is glandular near the blade, about 2.5 cm. long. The flowers, appearing with 

 the leaves in April and May, are 1.5 to 2 cm. across, in nearly stalkless 2- to 



