66 THE PLUMS OP NEW YORK. 



from the others, is made up of such varieties as Wayland, Moreman, Gol- 

 den Beauty, Reed, Leptune, Kanawha and others." These plums he 

 designated as the " Wayland group." This disposition of the plums 

 under consideration leaves Prunus hortulana as the name of only a 

 rather loosely related lot of cultivated varieties. It is probable that 

 neither Bailey nor Waugh, had they seen the material now to be had, 

 would have left the species as they did. 



There is an abundance of herbarium material to show that Prunus 

 hortulana as originally described by Bailey, with the varieties named as 

 the type, leaving out Wild Goose, which is but doubtfully included, and 

 as represented by Waugh's " Wayland group," is to be found wild in 

 Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, Missouri and northern 

 Arkansas, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. The writer has not seen 

 material from states adjoining those named but the species is probably 

 more widely spread than the range given indicates. Further, the cul- 

 tivated varieties named by Bailey as members of his species, to which 

 should be added at least American Golden, Benson, Columbia, Crimson 

 Beauty, Dunlap, Kanawha, Leptune, Moreman, Reed, Wayland and 

 World Beater, are so similar in all their characters and constitute a group 

 so distinct from any other species that it is impossible to place them other- 

 wise than in a distinct species. A group of hybrids could hardly be so uni- 

 form, and, moreover, these varieties contain characters, like late blooming, 

 late fruiting, color, texture and flavor of fruit, leaf -serrations and deposits 

 of red cork -cells in the bark, which other native species do not have, thereby 

 shutting out the probability of the hybridity theory in which the supposed 

 parents are Prunus americana and Prunus angustifolia. Lastly, and most 

 convincing, varieties of the species come true to seed, which of course, 

 would not be the case were these plums hybrids. From seed borne in 

 1893 this Station has had six seedlings of World Beater and four of Golden 

 Beauty attain the age of sixteen years with more or less fruit for thirteen 

 successive years. The seedlings could hardly be distinguished from the 

 parents and showed no pronounced characters of either of the species 

 of which Prunus hortulana has been supposed to be the hybrid offspring. 



Of the sixteen varieties named as certainly belonging to this species, 

 ten came from wild plants or seeds. Two of the remainder came from 

 planted seeds and the origin of the remaining four is not known. One of 

 the varieties from the wild, Golden Beauty, if its history as commonly 

 given is correct, came from the Colorado River in western Texas. The 



