INSITITIA PLUMS 



INSITITIA PLUMS 



121 



from climate but from several parasites, as 

 curculio, black-knot, leaf-blight, plum-pockets 

 and other pests. 



In North America, therefore, the Domestica 

 plums are confined to favored localities on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, the Great Lakes regions, and 

 the Pacific coast. In the first-named area they 

 are to be found thriving to a limited degree 

 in Nova Scotia and parts of Quebec, somewhat 

 in central New England, and particularly well 

 in the fruit-growing sections of New York, 

 especially in the parts of this state where 

 the climate is made equable by large bodies 

 of water. South of New York, excepting in 

 a few localities in Pennsylvania, but few plums 

 of this species are grown. The Domestica 

 plums are grown with indifferent success in 

 southern Ontario and in Michigan, and now 

 and then an orchard is found to the south 

 almost to the Gulf. In the great Valley of 

 the Mississippi and in the States of the Plains, 

 this plum is hardly known. Westward in the 

 irrigated valleys of the Rocky Mountains and 

 the Great Basin, the climate is favorable and 

 the European plums are nearly as well-known 

 as in any other portion of the continent ex- 

 cepting the Pacific coast. 



It is in the last-named region that the for- 

 eign plum reaches its highest development in 

 the New World. The trees in California, 

 Oregon, and Washington are very thrifty, and 

 the plums are of large size, handsome appear- 

 ance, and high quality. Both tree and fruit in 

 this favored region are free from most of the 

 insect and fungous troubles with which eastern 

 plum-growers must contend. Curculio and 

 black-knot, scourges of eastern orchards, are 

 not troublesome on the western coast. In 

 this region the Domesticas, practically the 

 only plums cultivated, succeed on either irri- 

 gated or naturally watered lands. 



It is probable that some of these plums were 

 introduced into America by the first colonists, 

 but if so, the early records do not show that 

 the fruit was much grown in this country until 

 toward the end of the eighteenth century. 

 Certainly, during the first two centuries of 

 colonization in the New World there were no 

 such plantations of the plum as there were 

 of the apple, pear, and cherry. Among the 

 first importations of plums were those made 

 by the French in Canada, more particularly 

 in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward 

 Island, and in favored situations such as the 

 LTslet County and the Island of Montreal 

 on the St. Lawrence River. In Massachusetts 

 some plums were planted by the Pilgrims, 

 according to Francis Higginson, writing in 

 1629. The plum was early introduced in sev- 

 eral of the southern colonies; so say Beverly, 

 writing in 1722 of Virginia, and Lawson in 

 his history of North Carolina, written in 1714. 



Insititia Plums 



2. Prunus insititia, Linn. Damson Plums. Tree 

 dwarfish ; trunk reaching 8 inches in diameter and 

 bearing its head 3-5 feet from the ground ; bark gray 

 with a tinge of red, smooth, with transverse cracks. 

 Leaves small, obovate ; apex obtuse or abruptly pointed ; 



base cuneate or narrowed and rounded ; margins finely 

 and closely, sometimes doubly serrate or crenate, usually 

 glandular ; texture thin and firm ; upper surface rugose, 

 dark green, slightly hairy; lower surface paler and soft, 

 pubescent ; petioles % inch long, slender, pubescent, 

 tinged with red ; glands few or glandless. Flowers ex- 

 panding with or after the leaves, 1 inch or less in size; 

 borne in lateral, umbel-like clusters, 1, 2 or rarely 3 

 from a bud, on slender pedicels, which are pubescent 

 and % inch in length ; calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous 

 or nearly so, green or tinged with red. Fruit globular 

 or oval, often necked, less than 1 inch in diameter, 

 variously colored but usually bluish-black or amber- 

 yellow, with a heavy bloom ; skin thin, tough ; stem 

 slender, % inch long, more or less pubescent ; cavity 

 shallow, narrow ; apex roundish or flattened ; suture 

 indistinct or a line ; flesh firm, yellow, juicy, sweet or 

 acid ; stone clinging or free, turgid, ovoid, smooth, 

 ridged on one edge and grooved on the other. 



The trees of the Damson plums are readily 

 distinguished from the Domestica sorts in 

 having a dwarfer and more compact habit; 

 much smaller and more ovate leaves, with 

 more closely serrate margins; branches more 

 finely divided, more slender, with shorter 

 joints, and bearing spines or spinescent spurs; 

 having a more abundant and a more clustered 

 inflorescence, with smaller flowers; a glabrous 

 instead of a pubescent pistil and calyx-tube; 

 reflexed calyx-lobes, whereas in Domestica 

 they are often erect; and flowers appearing 

 nearly a week later. The fruit-characters of 

 the Damson plums are even more distinctive. 

 The fruits are smaller, being less than an inch 

 in diameter; more nearly round or oval; more 

 uniform in shape, never strongly compressed 

 as in Domestica; with a less distinct suture; 

 and more often with a pronounced neck. The 

 color is usually the Damson purple or the 

 Mirabelle yellow, with no intermediate colors 

 as in Domestica, and with few or but slight 

 variations as compared with the other species. 

 The plums are sweet or sour, and have a very 

 much smaller range in flavor in the case of 

 the Insititias. The stones are smaller, more 

 oval, and much more swollen. 



In variability the Insititia plums are quite 

 the reverse of the Domesticas, almost wholly 

 lacking this quality. These plums have been 

 cultivated over two thousand years, yet there 

 is seemingly little difference between the sorts 

 described by the Greeks and Romans at the 

 beginning of the Christian Era and those we 

 are now growing. So, too, one often finds 

 half-wild chance seedlings with fruit indistin- 

 guishable from varieties under the highest 

 cultivation. This pronounced immutability of 

 the species is one of its chief characteristics. 



The hardiness, thriftiness, and productiveness 

 of all the varieties of this species commend 

 them to those who cannot give the care re- 

 quired for the less easily grown Domesticas. 

 In America, as in Europe, these plums are to 

 be found in almost every orchard, and in many 

 communities half-wild, thriving with little or 

 no care. The fact that they are easily propa- 

 gated, growing readily from suckers, and com- 

 ing true to seed, is an added reason for their 

 general distribution. The Insititia plums do 

 not seem to hybridize freely with other species 

 at least there are no recorded offspring of 

 such hybrids, though some believe the Reine 



