NIGRA PLUMS 



SUBCORDATA PLUMS 



125 



days earlier ; the fruits of the sub-species are larger 

 than those of the species, lighter red, have more bloom, 

 are less firm in texture, ripen earlier, yet later than 

 those of any other species, and are quite different in 

 flavor, having more nearly the taste of the fruit of 

 P. americana; the stones, as well as the fruits, are very 

 different, being in the sub-species larger, broader, flatter, 

 smoother and less pointed. The chief representatives 

 of the Miner-like plums under cultivation are Miner, 

 Forest Rose, Prairie Flower and Clinton. 



In the orchard, the Miner-like plums behave 

 much like the Americana plums. In some re- 

 spects the fruits are an improvement upon 

 those of the Americana varieties. Thus, the 

 skin is usually less tough and brighter in color; 

 and the flavor is a little better. These plums 

 seem to be nearly or quite as hardy as the 

 Americanas, and are adapted to quite as wide 

 a range of soils. The trees of the Miner-like 

 plums are more amenable to domestication 

 than those of P. americana, having as orchard 

 plants straighter trunks, more symmetrical 

 and less unkempt tops, and making larger 

 trees. The fruits ripen so late as to make the 

 varieties of this group especially valuable in 

 prolonging the season for plums in regions 

 where native varieties are grown exclusively. 



The Nigra Plums 



8. Prunus nigra, Ait. Canada Plum. Tree small, 

 seldom exceeding 20 feet in height; bark thin, & inch 

 thick, dark red or light gray-brown, rough, but not 

 shaggy, with thick scales ; branches upright, stout, 

 rigid, armed with stout, spiny spurs ; branchlets more 

 or less zigzag, glabrous or tomentose, green, later 

 becoming reddish-brown. Leaves large, broad-oval, obo- 

 vate, with a long-acuminate apex and cuneate or sub- 

 cordate base ; margins doubly crenate-serrate, with 

 teeth tipped with glands which disappear as the leaves 

 mature ; thin and firm in texture ; upper surface light 

 green, glabrous, the under surface pale, pubescent when 

 young ; petioles % inch long, stout, with two large, 

 dark red glands near the blade. Flowers expanding 

 before or with the leaves, large, sometimes 1% inches 

 across ; borne in three- or four-flowered lateral umbels 

 on slender, glabrous, red pedicels % inch or more in 

 length. Fruit early ; round-oblong, 1 inch in diameter, 

 red, orange or yellowish in color, with little or no 

 bloom ; skin thick, tough and astringent ; flesh yellow, 

 firm, often acid or astringent ; stone clinging, large, 

 oval, compressed, thick-walled, with a sharp ridge on 

 the ventral and a slight groove on the dorsal suture. 



The Nigra is the most northern of the 

 American plums, being an inhabitant of a 

 region bounded on the north by a line passing 

 from southern Newfoundland westward to the 

 Strait of Mackinac, thence southward to Lan- 

 sing, Michigan. The species is common in 

 New England, northern New York, where it 

 is sometimes cultivated about houses, and 

 westward at least as far as the eastern shore 

 of Lake Michigan. In the great region out- 

 lined above, it is distributed in more or less 

 scattered localities, being found usually in the 

 valleys of rivers and streams, though often 

 on high lands and in open woods. 



The Nigra plums are important horticul- 

 turally because they can be grown in colder 

 regions than the Americanas. They not only 

 endure more cold than the last-named group, 

 but their tough wood enables them to stand 

 better the weight of snows and the stress of 

 winds. Earliness in ripening, also, prolongs 

 the season for this type of fruit; and, in re- 

 gions where the season is short, the Nigras 



may be grown with more certainty than other 

 groups. About forty varieties of this species 

 are under cultivation. 



The Subcordata Plums 



9. Prunus subcordata, Benth. Western Plum. Tree 

 small, rarely attaining a height of 25 feet, sometimes a 

 shrub 10 or 12 feet high, often a bush but 3 or 4 feet 

 in height ; bark gray-brown and deeply fissured ; 

 branches stout and spreading ; branchlets glabrous or 

 pubescent, bright red becoming darker red and finally 

 a dark brown or gray ; lenticels minute, white. 

 Leaves round-ovate, sub-cordate, truncate, or cuneate 

 at the base ; margins sharply or obtusely serrate, some- 

 times doubly serrate ; young leaves pubescent, at ma- 

 turity nearly glabrous, coriaceous, with very conspicuous 

 midribs and veins. Flowers white, fading to rose, 1 

 inch across ; appearing before the leaves ; usually borne 

 in threes on short, pubescent pedicels. Fruit ripens in 

 late summer or early autumn ; round-oblong, 1 inch in 

 length, borne on a short, stout stem ; flesh subacid, 

 clinging to the flat or turgid stone which varies greatly 

 in size, pointed at both ends, crested on the ventral edge 

 and grooved on the other. 



The Subcordata plums are inhabitants of 

 the region east of the Coast Range from south- 

 ern Oregon to central California. The species 

 is so rarely found on the seacoast as to have es- 

 caped the attention of the early botanists and 

 remained unknown until the middle of the 

 nineteenth century. This plum is one of the 

 standard food products of the aborigines in 

 the region in which it grows; and is sometimes 

 dried at the harvesting places and carried 

 considerable distances to the Indian villages. 

 The trappers, the first men to enter the habitat 

 of this plum, followed by the gold-seekers and 

 ranchers, all knew and esteemed the fruit. 

 The early settlers regarded it as the most use- 

 ful of all the wild fruits of the Coast, and 

 attempts were made at an early date to do- 

 mesticate it. 



In its typical form, P. subcordata is a shrub, 

 but under favorable conditions attains the di- 

 mension and shape of a small tree. In its 

 roundish, roughish leaves it so closely re- 

 sembles the Old World type of plums that it 

 becomes the nearest approach to them to be 

 found among American species. But in the 

 globular, red or purple sub-acid fruit, it be- 

 trays its affinity to the American plums, as it 

 does also in the flat, turgid, smooth stones to 

 which the flesh tenaciously clings. The fruit 

 is sometimes so poor in quality as to be in- 

 edible; but, on the other hand, is sometimes 

 quite equal to some of the cultivated plums, 

 especially in its botanical variety, Kellogii. 



Prunus subcordata Kellogii, Lem. Sisson Plum, Gray- 

 branch Plum. Prunus subcordata Kellogii is distin- 

 guished from the species in being a somewhat taller 

 and more slender plant. The branches and bark are of 

 a characteristic ash-gray, so distinct in color from 

 P. subcordata that this is often called the "Gray- 

 branch" plum. The leaves are orbicular or elliptical, 

 not cordate, cuneate at the base and nearly glabrous. 

 The fruit is bright yellow instead of red, and is larger 

 than that of the species, being an inch or more in 

 diameter with a more nearly free stone. This plum 

 inhabits the region of Mount Shasta, where it has been 

 known since the time of the early gold diggers ; it 

 attracts more attention as a food, and promises more 

 for the cultivator than the species. Locally, it is known, 

 as the Sisson plum, after a Mr. Sisson living near 

 Mount Shasta who brought it to notice. At present, 

 this plum seems to be the branch of promise for the 

 improvement of the wild plums of the western coast. 



