CLASSIFICATION. 65 



has been rounded out by them or others, we may expect a full 

 and useful natural classification of Japanese plums. 



THE AMERICAN PLUMS. 



The botanical status of our native pliims has scarcely been 

 settled, much less so the horticultural status. We have, how- 

 ever, a good start toward a natural classification in the botanical 

 work that has been done. If all the species and botanical 

 varieties now recognized hold, we shall need few horticultural 

 groups. Divisions into horticultural groups would be difficult 

 as there are hundreds of varieties many of which are very 

 similar in the characters upon which pomological groups are 

 usually founded. 



P Americana, Marsh. Commow Wild Plum. — ^A spread- 

 ing, ragged, often thorny, small tree, growing along streams 

 and in copses from New England and Texas ; flowers large and 

 white on slender pedicels, appearing before or with the leaves ; 

 the latter large, obovate, abruptly pointed and coarsely toothed 

 or even jagged above, very coarsely veined, never glossy or 

 shining; fruit more or less flattened upon the sides, firm and 

 meaty, the skin tough and glaucous and never glossy, dull yellow 

 variously splashed or overlaid with dull red; stone large and 

 usually flattened, mostly nearly smooth and distinctly margined. 

 Many varieties in cultivation chief of which are: Depoto, 

 Weaver and Hawkeye. 



Waugh has called a northern type of this species P. Ameri- 

 cana var. nigra. The chief differences between the species and 

 its variety are in the growth of the tree, the fr.uits not being 

 characteristically distinct. Cheney is the. best representative. 



Another botanical variety of this species is P Americana 

 var. mollis distinguished from the parent species largely by the 



