622 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



importance. Its deep, purple-red plums ripen in autumn and are an excellent wild 

 fruit, juicy and tart. During the fruit season the plum thickets were formerly 

 infested by both bears and Indians, and many a fight for possession took place, with 

 victory sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other. The white inhabitants now 

 make jam and jelly of the fruit. 



AU.KC.H ANY SLOE (Prunus allegheniensis) is so named because it is best de- 

 veloped among the Alleghany mountains of Pennsylvania. The tree is eighteen or 

 twenty feet high and six or eight inches in diameter. The wood is without value for 

 commercial purposes, but the tree's fruit has some local importance. It ripens about 

 the middle of August, and is somewhat less than an inch in diameter, with dark, 

 reddish-purple skin, covering yellow flesh. 



CHIKASAW PLUM (Prunus angustifolia) is a well-known wild plum of the South 

 from Delaware to Texas, and north to Kansas. Its natural range is not known, 

 because it has been so widely planted, accidentally or otherwise, near farm houses and 

 in fence corners. Its bright, red fruit goes only to local markets. Negroes gather 

 most of the crop in the South. The wood is not considered to have any value, but, 

 in common with other plums, it possesses qualities which fit it for many small articles. 



GARDEN WILD PLUM (Prunus hortulana) is supposed to have originated in 

 Kentucky from a cross between the Chickasaw plum and the common wild plum 

 (Prunus americand). It has spread from Virginia to Texas. The largest trees are 

 thirty feet high and a foot in diameter. The fruit ripens in September and October, 

 is deep red or yellow, with hard, austere, thin flesh, quite sour. The fruit is called 

 wild goose or simply goose plum in Tennessee and Kentucky. Horticulturists 

 have made many experiments with this plum. 



COCOA PLUM (Chrysobalanus icaco), also called gopher plum, grows in southern 

 Florida, and its insipid fruit is seldom eaten except by negroes and Seminole Indians. 

 There is little sale for it in the local markets. Trees are sometimes thirty feet high 

 and a foot in diameter. The light brown wood is heavy, hard, and strong, but it is 

 seldom used. The tree grows in Africa and South America as well as in Florida. 



