THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 63 



the blossoms open comparatively late there is less damage from spring 

 frosts in this than in most other species even of the natives. 



The number of varieties of Americana plums is a testimonial to the 

 merits of the species. There are about 260 varieties of them more or 

 less disseminated. There are many divergent types of these and since 

 all are far from what may be eventually expected from the species the 

 number of varieties will undoubtedly greatly increase and in still other 

 directions. In the meantime the great majority have fallen by the wayside. 

 The weeding-out process seems to be in this case the chief agent of pro- 

 gression. A fault with the varieties now before the public is that many 

 of them are so similar that a difference can hardly be detected. The elimi- 

 nation of the great majority of the varieties of this species now in the 

 catalogs and a much more judicious selection of varieties for future dis- 

 semination would relieve pomology of the burden it now carries in the 

 numerous sorts of Americanas. 



PRUNUS AMERICANA MOLLIS 1 Torrey and Gray 



i. Torrey and Gray Fl. N. Am. 1:407. 1840. 2. Sargent loth Cen. U. S. 9:65. 1883. 3. 

 Coulter Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 2:102. 1891. 4. Sargent Sil. N. Am. 4:19. 1892. 5. Waugh Bot. 

 Gaz. 26:50. 1898. 



P. americana lanata. 6. Sudworth Nom. Arb. Fl. U. S. 237. 1897. 



P. lanata. 7. Mackenzie and Bush Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 12:83. 1902. 



Prunus americana mollis is a western and southwestern form of Prunus 

 americana, the sub-species being distinguished from the species by the 

 amount and character of the pubescence on the leaves and shoots. The 

 leaves, petioles and shoots of this plum are soft -pubescent, almost tomentose, 

 the tomentum being pale in color and usually very dense ; the calyx-lobes 

 are pubescent on both sides and the pedicels are appressed and densely 

 pubescent. According to Bailey, there is a form of this sub-species "with 

 flowers as completely double as those of St. Peter's wreath, or similar 

 spireas." This double -flowering plum we have not seen. 



It is impossible to give the range of Prunus americana mollis as the 

 woolly -leaved plum of the west gradually passes into the smooth- leaved 

 species of the east and the two forms are not infrequently mixed in the 

 South and Southwest; or possibly it would be better to say that they 

 run into each other though the extreme forms are sufficiently distinct 

 as to be readily mistaken for separate species. It can only be said 



1 The Prunus mollis of Torrey (Fl. U. S. 1:470. 1824) was Prunus nigra, as Torrey's specimen, 

 now in the herbarium of Columbia University, plainly shows. 



