AXVIIE. 1. THE YELLOW PLUM. 449 
Sp. 1. Tse Beach Prum. P. maritima. Wanganheim. 
Several varieties of this plum are found on Plum Island, and 
other islands on the coast and on the beaches, and by the road- 
side on the Cape, and in arid, sandy places, to the distance of 
twenty miles or more from the sea. It 1s a low shrub, with 
straggling branches, two to four feet mm height. growing usually 
in bunches among the loose stones or in the sand. The stem 
is of a very dark purple, almost black, erect or prostrate, with 
oblong, horizontal, ight ashen dots. The shoots are stout, 
brown, downy, dotted with orange. The leaves are rather 
closely set, on short, downy footstalks, elliptical or oblong, or 
oval, acute at each extremity, serrate, rather stiff, smooth above, 
downy, especially on the mid-rib and veins beneath, with usu- 
ally 1 or 2 glands near the base or on the footstalk. The flowers 
appear just before the leaves, along the sides, near the ends of 
the branches, from the axils of last year's leaves, in numerous 
umbels of 2 to 6 flowers. Footstalk slender, half an inch long, 
smooth or with minute pubescence. Segments of the calyx 
green, obtuse, slightly downy. Petals inversely egg-shaped, 
white. Fruit from half an inch to an inch in diameter, globu- 
lar, varying from crimson to purple in different varieties. It 
ripens in August and September. Flowers in May and June. 
This is an agreeable fruit, and is preserved in considerable 
quantities by the inhabitants of Plymouth and other maritime 
towns, as a sweetmeat. 
Sp. 2. Tre Yertow Pirum. Canapa Ptuw. PP. Americana. 
Marshall. 
I have not found this species growing wild in Massachusetts, 
although, as it occurs on the north and south of us, it will pro- 
bably be found here. It is often cultivated for its fruit, in the 
northern parts of New England, and makes a beautiful appear- 
ance in August, when the fruit is ripe and has a rich red or yel- 
low color. 
It is a small, round-headed tree, eight to fifteen feet high, with 
crowded, crooked, irregular branches. the older ones rough and 
Be 
Wwe 
