35° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 49S. 



seen, either on house or fence, except Honeysuckles 

 (usually of the showy golden-leaved variety) and the 

 Japanese Ivy of which we almost grew tired within the 

 city's limits before the summer had really begun. Would 

 not variety as well as beauty be better served if our native 

 wealth in shrubs and vines as well as trees was utilized 

 instead of the products of the commercial gardener ? 



Certainly in one important direction the interests of 

 variety would be far better served, as regards both trees and 

 shrubs, were native products more appreciated. The excuse 

 that is offered for the employment of exotics and garden 

 varieties is often that diversity in color is attractive. There- 

 fore, Nature's harmony of summer greens is disturbed by 

 masses of red and yellow and blotched-leaved plants. But 

 while confusion is thus secured, real variety is not. Such 

 bright-leaved plants remain the same from spring's begin- 

 ning until autumn's end, and their very brightness, making 

 them more conspicuous, only makes them seem more and 

 more monotonous as the weeks go by. The real way to 

 secure variety is to obtain plants which from week to week 

 or month to month will change. Those which bear beau- 

 tiful blossoms are to be preferred to those which have 

 brilliant leaves ; and if they are discreetly selected the 

 succession of bloom may be kept up all summer. And 

 then, if American plants are relied upon, autumn will bring 

 a magnificent diversity of its own. What bright hued plant 

 can be named, as a factor toward variety in the pleasure- 

 ground, which compares with the Dogwood — covered in 

 spring with sheets of white blossoms, showing a beautiful 

 spread of peculiar green in midsummer, in autumn turning 

 to a vivid crimson, and keeping late into the winter its 

 burden of scarlet berries ? What foreign shrubs can give 

 us the changeful effects which may be secured by a well- 

 arranged bed of Sumachs of different kinds — showing 

 diverse tints of green, ornamented in summer with bold 

 panicles which are pale green, rosy, bright red, or deep 

 brown in color, and in autumn becoming a glowing mass 

 of ruddy foliage ? What exotic has leaves more beautiful 

 than the shining Tupelo's, or turns suddenly like the Tu- 

 pelo to a gorgeous red, which lasts for many days or 

 weeks? What task presented by any collection of alien 

 trees and shrubs could be as interesting to the intelligent 

 planter as the task of so adorning his grounds with Ameri- 

 can trees and shrubs that, after their varied kinds of spring 

 and summer beauty have been enjoyed, a new and won- 

 derful autumn symphony will develop, shading from the 

 pale yellow of the Beech to the vivid yellows and reds of 

 the different Maples, the scarlet of certain Oaks, and the 

 dusky purple of the Ash, and emphasized by the still more 

 brilliant reds of Tupelos, Sumachs, and Dogwoods ? The 

 very mention of a place adequately treated with this aim 

 in view makes our customary arrays of yellow and striped 

 and blotched and brownish garden plants — monotonously 

 alike from year's end to end — seem by comparison, unin- 

 telligent, inartistic, and tiresome. 



The Wayland Group of Plums. 



IX an article in last week's issue of Garden and Forest 

 I called attention to the continuity of the series of 

 intergradients between the Americana and the Chica- 

 saw Plums and said that the series might be roughly 

 marked by three types, the Miner, the Wild Goose and the 

 Schley or Clifford. It was also noted that another group, 

 standing somewhat aside from this series, might, for the 

 present at least, be regarded as belonging among the 

 Hortulana Plums, and that this group is comparatively 

 distinct and very interesting. This I have designated as 

 the Wayland group * from one of its best types, the Way- 

 land Plum. Golden Beauty is also a good type of this 

 group, and is well known in the southern states, though not 

 northward. Moreman is the commonest variety of the 

 group in the northern states, but is not well known in the 



* Vermont Experiment Station, roth Report, [> t. 



south, and is not quite so good an exponent of the charac- 

 ters which mark this group. After considerable delibera- 

 tion I think that Wayland is the best and most convenient 

 group name for these varieties. 



Of course, this group is not free from puzzling forms 

 which show equivocal characters, apparently borrowed 

 from the Chicasaws, Americanas and other groups ; but on 

 the whole it is much better marked than the Miner or Wild 

 Goose sections, which have for several years been thought 

 worthy of recognition. The varieties are characterized by 

 straight, slender, dark-colored twigs, very large luxuriant 

 foliage, broad leaves, which are often pubescent on the 

 larger veins beneath, and which have from two to six 

 glands on the petioles ; axillary buds often triple ; blossoms 

 and fruit very late, mostly after Miner; fruit spherical, or 

 nearly so, red or yellow, with many small dots, thin-skinned 

 and of fine quality. 



Several varieties of this group are already widely dis- 

 tributed in cultivation. Others of considerable promise 

 have been recently introduced. Those which I have had 

 the opportunity to examine, and which seem to belong 

 with Wayland rather than in any other group, are Colum- 

 bia, Crimson Beauty, Cumberland, Garfield, Golden Beauty, 

 Kanawha, Leptune, Missouri Apricot, Moreman, Nimon, 

 Reed, Sucker State, Wayland and Worldbeater. Mr. T V. 

 Munson, in correspondence, mentions another variety, 

 Erby's September, growing in his grounds, which appa- 

 rently belongs with those named here. 



Ot these varieties, Cumberland, Golden Beauty, Kanawha, 

 Leptune, Reed and Wayland best show the distinctive 

 foliage and tree characters which separate them from ad- 

 joining types. These are all good Plums from the planter's 

 standpoint. All of them are very ornamental. Reed is one 

 of the most beautiful trees of its size I ever saw. 



These varieties have usually been put in the Wild Goose 

 class, though Bailey, who has done most of the work in 

 the classification of native Plums, puts Leptune, one of the 

 best marked varieties, into the Miner group, and President 

 Berckmans, who introduced Kanawha, says " this is beyond 

 question a form of Primus Americana." The whole group 

 has also been roughly referred to P. glandulosa, Torn & 

 Gray, but this is evidently a mistake. Mr. T. V. Munson 

 has given this question serious study, and has concluded 

 that all these varieties are derived from P. rivularis, Scheele. 

 This is a somewhat startling decision, and extremely im- 

 portant if true. The facts are, however, first, that we are 

 yet too poorly acquainted with this species to make critical 

 comparisons ; second, that Scheele's description, made at 

 second hand from Lindheimer's specimens, is not suffi- 

 ciently precise to preclude mistakes ; third, that the de- 

 scription,* what there is of it, fails, in important particulars, 

 to fit the varieties in question ; and fourth, that many of 

 these varieties have originated in localities where it is almost 

 impossible to believe that P. rivularis could be growing. 



To particularize further, the National Herbarium f con- 

 tains only the following specimens : Those of Lindheimer, 

 collected in western Texas in 1846 ; one by Hall, from 

 Dallas; two by Wolf, collected in Illinois in 1875 and very 

 possibly cultivated specimens ; and one of doubtful authen- 

 ticity by Thomas Bassler. from Manhattan, Kansas. Other 

 herbaria seem to have no better representation of the spe- 

 cies, and this could hardly be the case were it so common 



* Since this description is inaccessible to many students, it will be well to tran- 

 scribe it here : 



Primus rivularis, Scheele, Lhviaa, 21.594. Frutex 3-6 pedalis ; rami angulati 

 glabri nitidi cinerei verruculosi, verrucse parvse cont'ertse. Petioli glandulosi 

 canalicular puberuli. Folia ovate-oblonga acuminata iiuequaliter serr'ulata. basi 

 glandulosa, subtus sporse pubescentia, supra glabra, serraturae callosaB conferla3. 

 UmbHIse lalerales sessiles, subbifl irae. Squamae gemmae floritene aphyllae. Pe- 

 dunculi glabri elongatisubgtandulosi, petiolumsequantes. Flores . . . Drupa 

 rubra glubosa glabra nitida acida 



" Gesellschat'tlich an Bachrandern, selltener aber jedesmal in Menge zusam- 

 merstehenden auf HOgeln. Straucl) 3-6' hoch, Frucht k'iigelig, hell-rolh, angenehm 

 sauerlich. von der Grosse einer Kirsche bisui der einer Mirabelle, ^-i" dick. Die 

 Tawakong-Indianer sollen die Frucht, mit honig gekocht, sehr lieben.Die Texaner 

 nennen sie 'Tawakong plum ' " Lindheimer. 



Gehort an Rotte Eucerasus, Torr S; Gray. 



Seltener stehen die Blumen einzeln. 



t The specimens in the National Herbarium were 

 Mr, Lysler H. Dewev. 



examined for me by 



