78 



THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



in being a somewhat taller and more slender plant.' The branches and 

 bark are of a characteristic ash-gray, so distinct in color from Prunus 

 subcordata that this is often called the " Gray-branch " plum. The leaves 

 are orbicular or elliptical, not cordate, ctmeate at the base and nearly 

 glabrous. The fruit is bright yellow instead of red and larger than that 

 of the species, being an inch or more in diameter with a more nearly free 

 stone. This pltim inhabits the region of Mount Shasta where it has been 

 known since the time of the early gold diggers, attracting more attention 

 as a food, and promising more for the cultivator than Subcordata. Botan- 

 ists seem to have given this pltim comparatively little attention and careful 

 study may give it specific rank. Locally, and now somewhat in the trade, 

 it is known as the Sisson plum, after a Mr. Sisson, living near Mount Shasta^ 

 who has brought it to notice. At present the Kelloggii seems to 

 be the branch of promise for the improvement of the wild plums of 

 the western coast. 



IS. PRUNUS UMBELLATA Elliott 



I. Elliott Sk. Bot. S. C. andGa. 1:541. 1821. 2. Sargent 10th Cen. U. S. 9:67. 1883. 3. Ibid. 

 Sil. N. Am. 4:33, PI. 155. 1892. 4. Waugh Plum Cult. 91. 1901. 5. Mohr CofU. U. S. Nat. Herb. 

 6:551. 1901. 



Cerasus umbellata. 6. Torrey and Gray Fl. N. Am. 1:409. 1840. 



Tree low, sometimes a shrub, seldom over twenty feet in height ; trunk short, usually 

 crooked, attaining a thickness of ten inches; bark dark brown and scaly; branches 

 spreading, slender, twiggy but spineless; branchlets at first pubescent but becoming 

 glabrous, bright red turning dark brown the second year; lenticels few, oblong, yellowish. 



Leaves oblong-ovate, or oblong-obovate to oblong, thin and membranaceous, 

 acute at the apex but usually obtuse or cordate at the base; margins closely and evenly 

 serrate with glandular teeth, upper surface dark green and glabrous, lower surface pale 

 green and more or less pubescent; petioles stout, glabrous or sometimes pubescent; 

 glands usually two, sometimes wanting, large, dark, at the base of the leaf; stipules 

 lanceolate, small, caducous. 



Flowers medium in size, appearing before and with the leaves ; usually borne in four- 

 flowered umbels; calyx-tube obconic, its lobes entire, outer surface glabrous or pubes- 

 cent, the inner densely tomentose; petals white, orbicular, clawed. 



Fruit matures in late summer; one-half inch in diameter, nearly round, without 

 cavity or suture, borne on a slender pedicel three-quarters inch long, orange-red or 

 bright red to purple or nearly black, covered with a thin bloom; skin thick and tough; 

 flesh coarse, thick, acid or astringent, scarcely edible; stone nearly free, flattened, 

 acute at both ends, rugose, thin-walled. 



' The first published account of this plum is a brief non- technical description of it by Dr. Kellogg 

 in Hutching's Mag. 5:7. 1859. 



