THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 67 



Golden Beauty now under cultivation almost certainly belongs to Prunus 

 hortulana, though it differs somewhat from other varieties of the group, 

 but how it could have come from the wild in western Texas, so far from 

 the usual range of the species, is at present unexplainable. This and other 

 idiosyncrasies of distribution were reasons given by Bailey and Waugh 

 for calling this species a group of hybrids. A careful study of localities 

 from which all other Hortulana varieties than Golden Beauty have come 

 shows them to be well within the range of Prunus hortulana. The fact 

 that Golden Beauty is perfectly hardy at Geneva, and according to Waugh 

 fairly so at Burlington, Vermont, suggests either that what we have as 

 Golden Beauty did not originate in south central Texas or that the plant 

 from which it came must have been introduced there within comparatively 

 recent times. 



Prunus hortulana gives to American pomology a very distinct 

 and valuable group of plums which fortunately are adapted to a wide range 

 of conditions, especially of climate. The Hortulanas are particularly well 

 suited to the Mississippi Valley and southern states and fruit well as far 

 north and east as New York. The product of Wayland, Kanawha and 

 Golden Beauty, best known of the plums under discussion, is especially 

 suitable for preserves, spicing and jelly, being unsurpassed by any other 

 of our plums excepting the Damsons for these purposes. They are quite 

 too acid and the flesh clings too tenaciously to the stone for dessert plums 

 or even for ordinary culinary purposes. These plums, having firm flesh 

 and tough skins, ship and keep splendidly and since they are the latest 

 of the native plums in ripening, extend the season for this fruit very 

 materially. The Wayland-like plums make very good stocks upon which 

 may be grafted not only the varieties of the same species but those of the 

 other native species as well. A point of especial merit with these plums 

 as stocks is that they do not sucker as do most other species. Unfortu- 

 nately they cannot be propagated from cuttings and the difficulty of 

 obtaining seed at present precludes their use very generally. The Hortu- 

 lana plums hybridize freely with other native species and their hybrids 

 are such as to commend this species very highly to plum-breeders for 

 hybridization. 



Waugh ' has given the name Prunus hortulana robusta to a group 

 of hybrid plums of which Prunus triflora and various native varieties are 

 the parents. For most part these hybrids resemble the American more 



'Waugh, F. A. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 14:177. 1900-01. 



