THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 5 



or have been under cultivation. These varieties give a greater range of 

 flavor, aroma, texture, color, form and size, the qualities which gratify 

 the senses and make fruits desirable, than any other of our orchard fruits. 

 The trees, too, are diverse in structure, some of the plums being shrub- 

 like plants with slender branches, while others are true trees with stout 

 trunks and sturdy branches; some species have thin, delicate leaves and 

 others coarse, heavy foliage. In geographical distribution both the wild 

 and the cultivated plum encircle the globe in the North Temperate Zone, 

 and the cultivated varieties are common inhabitants of the southern tem- 

 perate region, the various plums being adapted to great differences in 

 temperature, moisture and soil in the two zones. 



The great variety of plums and the variability of the kinds, seemingly 

 plastic in all characters, the general distribution of the fruit throughout 

 the zone in which is carried on the greatest part of the world's agriculture, 

 and the adaptation of the several species and the many varieties, to topo- 

 graphical, soil and climatic changes, make this fruit not only one of much 

 present importance but also one of great capacity for further development. 

 Of the plums of the Old World the Domesticas, Insititias and probably 

 the Trifloras have been cultivated for two thousand years or more, while 

 the work of domesticating the wild species of America was only begun 

 in the middle of the last century. There are about fifteen hundred vari- 

 eties of the Old World plums listed in this work, and since the New World 

 plums are quite as variable, as great a variety or greater, since there 

 are more species, may be expected in America. 



An attempt is made in The Plums of New York to review the plum 

 flora of this continent, but the species considered fall far short of being 

 all of the promising indigenous plums; not only are there more to be de- 

 scribed, but it is probable that species here described will in some cases 

 be sub-divided. The development of the pomological plum-wealth of 

 North America is but begun. Not nearly as much has been done to develop 

 the possibilities of the European plums in America as in the case of the 

 other tree -fruits. Probably a greater percentage of the varieties of Old 

 World plums commonly cultivated came from across the sea, than of the 

 varieties of any other of the orchard -fruits which have been introduced- 

 Much remains to be done in securing greater adaptability of foreign plums 

 to American conditions. Native and foreign plums are also being hybridized 

 with very great advantage to pomology. 



The Plums of New York is written largely with the aim of furthering 

 the development of plums in America, the possibilities of which are in- 



