THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 85 



a letter from William Fitzhugh, written in 1686, in which the latter speaks 

 of the " Indian Cherry," meaning of course, this plum; for it still passes 

 under the same name. 



Of the horticultural possibilities of Prunus angustifolia, little can be 

 said from this Station as the trees cannot be grown here. But since the 

 species has been so long known, and is s6 near at hand to fruit-growers, 

 without more of its offspring coming under cultivation, it is not likely that 

 it may be counted upon to bring forth much in the future for the orchard. 

 Such trees and fruits of this species as the writer has seen are not at all 

 promising for the cultivator. 



PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA WATSONI (Sargent) Waugh' 



i. Waugh Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:239. 1899. 2. Bailey Cyc. Am, Hort. 1450 fig. 1901. 

 P. watsoni. 3. Sargent Gar. and For. 7:134, fig. 1894. 4. Waugh Bot. Gaz. 26:53. 1898. 

 5. Bailey Ev. Nat. Fr. 218. 1898. 



Shrub four to ten feet high; branches slender, short-jointed, zigzag, reddish-brown; 

 branchlets at first bright red and lustrous, later becoming brownish-red or sometimes 

 ashy-gray; lenticels few and light-colored; leaves small, ovate, apex acute, base rounded 

 or cuneate, margins finely crenulate; upper surface glabrous, shining, lower surface 

 paler, glabrous; petioles reddish, one-half inch in length, biglandular at the apex. 



Flowers in fascicles of two to four, borne with or before the leaves and in great 

 abundance; calyx cup-shaped, the lobes acute, eglandular, ciliate on the margins, 

 pubescent on the inner surface; petals white, obovate, contracted into a claw at the 

 base; filaments glabrous, anthers reddish, style slender, exserted; pedicels one-quarter 

 inch long. 



tion for the soil of the valleys of the rivers, and of the narrow bottoms of the smaller streams. This 

 variety was considered to be of extraordinary excellence in flavor; when ripe it was colored a dark 

 purple, and there was only a single cherry to the stalk. There were two varieties of plums, re- 

 sembling, both in size and taste, the English Damson." Bruce, Philip Alexander Economic His- 

 tory of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century 1:94. 1896. 



1 Frank A. Waugh was born in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, July 8, 1869. On his father's side 

 he is of Scotch descent, though the family has long been in America; his mother came from Ger- 

 many. He was educated in the public schools of Kansas and in the Kansas State Agricultural Col- 

 lege, graduating from the latter place in 1891. In 1893 ^ e became professor of horticulture in the 

 Oklahoma Agricultural College and horticulturist at the Experiment Station, a place which he held 

 for nearly three years, going late in 1895 to take the same position in the University of Vermont. 

 After eight years of arduous service in Vermont, during which time he became well known by his 

 writings on horticultural, botanical and agricultural subjects, he left Vermont to take charge of 

 horticulture in the Massachusetts Agricultural College and the Hatch Experiment Station. 

 Professor Waugh's study of plums began in the West, Kansas and Oklahoma, but his reports in 

 regard to this fruit have come from Vermont where his work has been mainly done. The chief 

 titles under which his studies have been published in the bulletins and annual reports of the Ver- 

 mont Station are: The Pollination of Plums, Classification of Plums, A Monograph of the Wayland 



