XVIII 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF PLUMS 



FROM the standpoint of classification the 

 plums are the most diverse and complicated 

 of all our fruits. They have received more 

 critical study in this country, however, than 

 any other class of fruits, and as a proper re- 

 sult we have a much better system of classifi- 

 cation for them than we have for apples or 

 pears. The classification is more nearly 

 natural, more scientific, and more useful. 



All our American plum classification has 

 been done on purely natural lines ; at any 

 rate, it has been planned on such lines. If it 

 is unnatural or arbitrary at certain points it is 

 only because it is seldom possible to see all 

 the facts at once in any case so complex. 



The most recent, as well as the most com- 

 prehensive, scheme of classification for plums, 

 is that used in Waugh's " Plums and Plum 

 Culture,"* and the general outline of this 

 scheme will be followed here with the inter- 



*Waugh, " Plums and Plum Culture." Orange Judd Co., 

 New York, 1900. 



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