NATIVE AMERICAI^ SPECIES OF PEUNUS. 



35 



All of the varieties named, mth the exception of the last one, are of 

 the ''Wayland group" and the name Iwrtulairm must in consequence 

 be retained in its original apphcation. Wild goose belongs to a 

 distinct species, very different in habit and in some other characters 

 from any of the other varieties named in the original description. 

 The species varies greatly in the size and quality of its fruit, and when 

 it receives the attention it deserves by those engaged in the improve- 

 ment of American fruits it will undoubtedly occupy a more prominent 

 place in American pomology than at present. In its most perfect 

 development it is probably the most synnnetrical in form of any of 

 the native species. Its vigor, nonsuckering habit, and abundant 



Fig. 2. 



-Outline map of the United States, showing tho distribution of native American species of 

 Prunus: Hmtulana, reverchonii, Tivularis, munsoniana, orthoscpala, and ungusHfoUa. 



fruiting qualities commend it as a stock where sufficiently hardy, as 

 well as for a fruit-producing tree. The Crimson Beauty, Cumber- 

 land, Garfield, Golden Beauty, Kanawha, Leptune, Moreman, Reed, 

 and Waylaiid varieties belong to this species. Among these varieties 

 Golden Beauty is supposed to have been found wild far beyond the 

 natural range of the species in the Southwest. It was introduced in 

 1874 by Gilbert Onderdonk, of Nursery, Tex. Mr. Onderdonk writes 

 the following under date of February 1, 1911: 



The German whose name I have lost ran off from Gonzales County to the then 

 Indian frontier in the region of Fort Belknap. He did so to avoid conscription into 

 the Confederate Army. I can have no idea that he went up iut<^) Oklahoma. There 

 wa« then exemption from conscription in the Indian frontier counties. When the 

 war was over he returned trj Gonzales County, bringing with him cuttings of a plum 

 that he called "Late Yellow Chickasaw," and said that he found it wild not far from 

 Fort Belknap. That is all wc know about its origin. 



