A STUDY OF THE NATIVE PLUM. 



597 



The following cultivated varieties of plums belong to 

 the P. Americana group : American Eagle, Beaty Choice, 

 Black Hawk, Brainerd, Cheney, Chippeway, Cottrell, 

 Deep Creek, De Soto, Forest Garden, Gaylord, Harrison 

 Peach, Hawkeye, Ida, Illinois Ironclad, lona, Itaska, 

 Kickapoo, Kopp, Late Rollingstone, Le Due, Little Seed- 

 ling, Louisa, Leudloff Green. Leudloff Red. Maquoketa. 

 Minnetonka, Mus 

 sey, Newtown E 

 New Ulm, Ocheeda. 

 Peffer Premmm, 

 Purple Yosemite. 

 Quaker, Rolling- 

 stone, Speer, Van 

 Buren, Wazata. 

 Weaver, Wier Large 

 Red, Wild Rose. 

 Wolf, Wyant, Yellow Sweet. 

 Yellow Yosemite. 



The Americana group sue 

 ceeds best in the north 

 states of the Mississippi valley . 

 and it is the only one which is 

 able to withstand the climates 

 of the northernmost limits of 

 the native-plum belt, as Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota and Iowa. 

 There are some varieties, how- 

 ever, which succeed so far 

 south as Texas. In the Atlan- 

 tic states the varieties are not 

 grown far south. The varieties 

 which are most highly prized 

 are Cheney, Deep Creek De 

 Soto, Forest Garden, 

 Itaska, Louisa, Pur- 

 ple Yosemite, Quak- 

 er, Rollingstone, 

 Weaver and Wolf. 



B. The Wild 

 Goose Group (Pru- 

 nus horlulana, L. 

 H. Bailey). This, 

 perhaps the most im- 

 portant group of native plums, 

 includes varieties character- 

 ized by strong, wide-spreading 

 growth and mostly smooth 

 twigs, a firm, juicy, bright- 

 colored, thin-skinned fruit, 

 which is never flattened, a 

 clinging, turgid, comparative- 

 ly small, rough stone, which is 

 sometimes prolonged at the 

 ends but is never conspicuously wing-margined ; and by 

 comparatively thin and firm, shining, smooth, flat, more 

 or less peach-like, ovate-lanceolate or ovate long-pointed 

 leaves, closely and obtusely glandular-serrate on stalks 

 usually glandular. Pritnus hortiilana in the wild state 

 appears to follow the Mississippi river from northern Illi- 



Foliage c 



nois to Arkansas, in its middle region ranging so far east 

 as eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and possibly to Mary- 

 land, and in the southwest spreading over Texas. 



The varieties are intermediate between the Americana 

 and Chickasaw groups, while the Miner group, which I 

 refer provisionally to this species, is anomalous in its 

 characters. The fruits lack entirely the dull-colored, 

 compressed, thick-skinned and meaty characters of the 

 Americanas, and approach very closely to the Chicka- 

 caw"; They are usuallv covered with a thin bloom, and 

 are more or less marked by small spots. They are vari- 

 e in period of ripen- 

 ing, there being a differ- 

 ence of no less than two 

 months between the 

 seasons of some of the 

 cultivated varieties. In 

 color they range from 

 the most vivid crimson 

 to pure golden yellow. 

 The botanical feat- 

 ures of the species 

 are not yet well 

 determined, and it 

 is not impossible 

 that more than 

 one species is con- 

 founded in it. 

 Some of the gross 

 features of this 

 species are well il- 

 lustrated in fig. 3, 

 on the next page. 



In this group 

 there are two more 

 'or less clearly 

 marked types, 

 which I am not 

 yet able to separ- 

 ate by positive bo- 

 tanical characters. One 

 type is characterized 

 by thin and very smooth 

 peach-like leaves, which 

 are very finely and ev- 

 enly serrate. It com- 

 prises Cumberland, In- 

 dian Chief, Roulette 

 and Wild Goose. The 

 other form or type is 

 characterized by thick- 

 er, duller and more 

 veiny leaves, which are 



ural size ; fruits and stones full size. . , 



more coarsely and more 

 or less irregularly serrate. This includes Golden Beauty, 

 Kanawha, Moreman, Reed, Sucker State, World Beater 

 and Wayland. It forms a transition to the Miner group. 



The Wild Goose group includes the following plums : 

 Clark, Cumberland, Garfield, Golden Beauty, Honey 

 Drop, Indian Chief, Kanawha, Missouri Apricot or Honey 



Plum. (Americana Group.) 



