596 



A STUDY OF THE NATIVE PLUM. 



and fine flavor ; an abundant bearer and strong grower. 

 Keeps perfect on the trees 6 or 7 weeks after ripening. 



Early Frog-more. — A medium-sized bigarreau, pale 

 yellow with a firm rosy sun-side. The tree is a good 

 cropper, but the fruit-flesh is soft, and does not keep 

 longer than 2 or 3 weeks. 



Belle Orleatis. — A strong-growing tree with medium- 

 sized fruit, which keeps for about a month. 



Monstreuse de Menzel. — Cultivated under glass the 

 fruit of this variety of the cherry grows to enormous 

 size. The flesh is firm and rich flavored, and keeps 

 froms to 6 weeks. A fine bigarreau ; red, with brown- 

 striped cheek. 



May Duke. — Of good growth ; the best of the duke 

 cherries. 



Large Black Bi.i/arreau. — An old, well-known sort, 

 well adapted to pot-culture. 



Bedford Prolific. — Large, quite black fruit that keeps 

 for weeks ; tree a strong grower. 



Elton. — One of the best and best-known heart cher- 

 ries ; keeps for 2 or 3 weeks. The large, drooping 

 leaves and fine flowers of this variety make it a very 

 handsome tree. 



A'apolcon Bigarreau. — A large, fine-flavored, beauti- 

 fully-colored fruit. The tree bears heavily. 



Late Black Bigarreau. — A good sort for the orchard- 

 house, although the growth sometimes gets rather weak 

 after having been cultivated for some time in pots 



Turkey Black Heart. — One of the best sorts for house 

 culture. 



Guigne de Winkler. — This should be in all collections, 

 as it is the latest of all the cherries to ripen, and its fruit 

 keeps perfect on the tree a wonderfully long time after 

 ripening. One year we kept these cherries in fine condi- 

 tion from August until the beginning of October. 



Cherries as a rule are not suited to early forcing, but 

 there are a few sorts that can be used for this purpose, 



England. A. K. Anderson. 



A STUDY OF THE NATIVE PLUM 



AS NOW UNDEF 



ILD GOOSE PLUMS 

 were introduced some 

 forty years ago, and since 

 then there has been a 

 steadily growing interest 

 in the amelioration of 

 our native plums. The 

 native species possess 

 certain advantages over 

 the common plums of 

 the Prnnus domestica 

 type, and they are so 

 widely distributed and naturally so variable that they 

 have been easily brought into cultivation under a great 

 number of forms. Over 150 varieties have been named 

 and more or less disseminated, 



CLASSIFICATION OF CULTIVATED NATIVE PLUMS. 



A. The Americana Group (Prunus Americana, Mar- 

 shall). To this type belong the hardy, strong-growing 

 varieties from the northwest, which are characterized by 

 a firm, meaty, usually compressed, dull-colored late fruit, 

 with thick and usually very tough, glaucous skin and 

 large more or less flattened stone, which is often nearly 

 or quite free, and by large obovate, thick, veiny, jagged, 

 dull leaves. Prunus Americana is generally distributed 

 throughout the northern states from western New Eng- 

 land to Kansas and Nebraska, and to the mountains of 

 Montana and Colorado, in the middle longitudes reach- 

 ing as far north as Manitoba, and as far south as Texas 

 and even northern Mexico. Notwithstanding its wide 

 range, most of its cultivated varieties have come from its 

 northwestern limits, as northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota, Iowa and Kansas. This fact is an indication that 

 the western plum may be a distinct species from the east- 



cultivation. 



ern and southwestern types. I have looked in vain, how- 

 ever, for characters with which to separate them. To 

 this species belong Weaver, the stones of which, as shown 

 in fig. 2, are very large, flat and smooth, and Wolf, shown 

 in fig. I. 



The fruits of wild forms of Prunus Americana vary 

 widely in season, size, shape, flavor and character of 

 stone. Trees in the same clump often vary two weeks in 

 the season of ripening fruit, which may vary from dull 

 deep red to yellow ; but the 

 yellow of Americana is al- 

 ways a more or less ill-defined 

 under-color, over which are 

 laid blotches of red. The 

 fruits are more or less flat- 

 tened, usually oblong and trun- 

 cate or somewhat flattened at 

 the ends, and marked with a 

 distinct suture. All the varie- 

 ties have a light purple bloom. 



The Texan form of P. Amer- 

 icana, known locally as the 

 hog-plum, appears to differ 

 somewhat from the northern 

 forms, and it may be a dis- 

 tinct species. 



West of the Mississippi there 

 is a form of Prunus .Imcri- 

 cana with conspicuously pu- 

 bescent and often glaucous 

 leaves and shoots. This is the 

 variety P. mollis, a plant commonly supposed to be con- 

 fined to Texas and its northern borders. It certainly 

 grows as far north as Iowa. The varieties known as 

 Wolf and Van Buren belong here. 



,4 



Fig I.— Wolf Plum. 

 (Americana Group.) 



