THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 79 



Prunus umbellata, the Sloe, Black Sloe or Hog Plum, Oldiield, and 

 sometimes Chickasaw and BuUace of the South, is foimd along the seaboard 

 from South Carolina to central Florida, thence westward to the Gulf and 

 along its shores to Texas. Inland it is found as far north as middle Georgia,' 

 Alabama and Mississippi and southern Arlcansas. Though very common 

 in localities in the region outlined, there are vast areas of this territory 

 in which it is scarcely fotind, preferring bottom lands of rivers and rich, 

 moist soils in some instances and dry, sandy copses, open woods and borders 

 of fields in others. In flower and fruit it is a handsome and conspicuous 

 plant, yet, as the references show, the early botanists did not describe 

 it, and even Elliott, who gave it its name, in 1821, passed it by with a scant 

 description. Its neglect by the several famous botanists of the Eighteenth 

 Century who explored this region must be attributed to their confusing 

 it with Prunus angustijoUa and Prunus maritima, one or the other of which 

 is found in most of the region, and to the idios5mcrasies of the distribution 

 of Prunus umbellata. 



The fruit of this species is tinfit for dessert purposes but is commonly 

 gathered for culinary use and sometimes is offered for sale in the markets 

 of the South, being highly esteemed for pies, jams and jellies. There 

 appear to have been no efforts made to domesticate it, however, and since 

 it is quite inferior in fruit-characters to others of the native plums, efforts 

 to that end are probably not worth while. 



PRUNUS UMBELLATA INJUCUNDA (Small) Sargent 



I. Sargent Sil. N. Am. 13:21. 1902. 



Prunus injucunda. 2. Small Torrey. Bot. Club Bui. 25:149. 1898. 3. Mohr Ihid. 26:118. 1899. 

 4. Ibid. Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6:552. 1901. 5. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 1449. 1901. 



Tree low, seldom twenty feet in height, often a straggling shrub; trunk short, 

 crooked, attaining a diameter of eight inches; bark dark brown, nearly black; branches 

 slender, rigid, twiggy and somewhat spiny; branchlets velvety becoming purplish 

 and finally a dull gray; lenticels few, yellowish. 



Leaves oblong-ovate to obovate, taper-pointed at the apex and obtuse or rounded 

 at the base, margins closely and finely toothed, thin in texture ; upper surface yellowish- 

 green, wrinkled and more or less pubescent, lower surface densely pubescent and with 

 a prominent yellowish midrib and rather prominent lateral veins; petioles stout, one- 

 half inch in length, very pubescent; stipules lanceolate, small, caducous. 



Flowers medium in size or small, usually appearing before the leaves; in four or 

 five-flowered sub-sessile umbels; pedicels slender, three-quarters inch in length, very 



^Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 25:149. 1898. 



