THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 83 



that it does not belong where it now grows is the fact that it is usually 

 found near human habitations and on the margins of fields and as it was 

 known to have been cultivated by the Indians,' it is supposed to have 

 escaped from their semi-cultivated plantations. Bailey '' dissents from 

 the ciu^rent view, holding that the plant behaves like a true native in 

 regions where he has known it, Maryland in particular. It seems to the 

 writer that Bartram's supposition, given in the foot-note below, has been 

 followed too closely. A careful study of recent botanical works indicates 

 that the species is indigenous to the southeastern United States. 



Whatever the original habitat may have been it is now found in the 

 wild state from southern Delaware to Florida and westward to the Pan- 

 handle of Texas and southern Oklahoma. It is usually found on rich 

 soils but is fotind as well in worn-out fields and pastures, most often in 

 thickets of small trees or thorny shrubs or scraggly bushes, producing 

 lander the latter conditions a small fruit so like cherries as to give it the 

 name in some localities " Motintain Cherry " (Maryland), and in others 

 " Wild Cherry " (Louisiana). 



There has been much confusion in regard to Prunus angustifoUa. 

 The older botanists very generally mistook this species for Michaux's 

 Prunus chicasa which, as stated in the foot-note on page 82, is almost 

 certainly not the plum under discussion. Practically all horticulturists 

 ascribe to Prunus angustifoUa a great ntimber of cultivated varieties which 

 cannot by any possibility belong here ; indeed, it is doubtful if the species 

 is cultivated at all other than very locally, and still more doubtful as to 

 whether, as compared with other native pltims, it is worth growing. In 

 spite of this confusion the species is one of the most distinct of plums, 

 and its characters are comparatively constant throughout the range. A 

 careful reading of Humphrey Marshall's description of Prunus angustifoUa 

 by subsequent botanists might have helped to keep this plum in its place. 

 Marshall wrote of it : 



" Pnmus angustifolia. Chicasaw Plumb. This is scarcely of so large 

 a growth as the former [P. americana], but rising with a stiff, shrubby 

 stalk, dividing into many branches, which are garnished with smooth, 

 lance-shaped leaves, much smaller and narrower than the first kind [P. 



' " The Chicasaw plumb I think must be excepted, for though certainly a native of America, 

 yet I never saw it wild in the forest, but always in old deserted Indian plantations : I suppose it 

 to have been brought from the S. W. beyond the Mississippi, by the Chicasaws." Bartram Travels 

 Through North and SoiUh Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, etc. 38. 1793. 



'Bailey Ev. Nat. Fr. 193. 1898. 



