A STUDY OF THE NATIVE PLUM. 



599 



horlulana, but the two species are easily separated in a 

 wild state. The zigzag young twigs and trough-like leaves 

 of the Chickasaws are characteristic, and are shown in 

 fig. 6 (page 600), and a plate of the fruit in fig. 7 (page 

 601). The leaves are often very 

 small, scarcely exceeding an inch 

 in length, but upon the more vig- 

 orous cultivated varieties, as the 

 Newman, the leaf-blades are often 

 three inches long and nearly flat. 

 In herbarium specimens the species 

 is usually recognized by the two 

 halves of the leaves being pressed 

 together so that the upper surface 

 is hidden. In a wild state the trees 

 or bushes are thorny, and the thorns 

 persist in some of the cultivated 

 varieties. They grow wild, often in 

 dense thickets, from southern Dela- 

 ware to Florida, and westward to 

 Kansas and Texas. The small 

 acerb fruit of the thorny and scrag- 

 gly wild bushes is known in Mary- 

 land as "mountain cherry." 



The following plums belong to 

 this group; African, Arkansas 

 Lombard, Caddo Chief, Coletta, 

 Early Red, El Paso, Emerson Ear- 

 ly, Hoffman, Jennie Lucas, Lone 

 Star, Newman, Ogeechee, Potta- 

 wattamie, Robinson, Schley (Schley 

 Large Red), Strawberry, Wootton, 

 Yellow Transparent. I have plants 



from Kansas under the name of "Kansas Dwarf Cher- 

 ry," which are evidently a bush-like form of this species. 

 They have not yet borne. 



The " sand plum," which is occasionally grown in Ne- 

 braska, is Primus angustifolia , if I may judge from 

 leaves sent me Dr. C. E. Bessey, of the University of 

 Nebraska. It is not improbable that this sand plum is the 

 same as the Kansas dwarf cherry. 



The Chickasaw group is partic- 

 ularly adapted to the southern 

 states, and it succeeds as far north 

 as Maryland and Ken- 

 tucky, while some of the 

 varieties are hardy in 

 central New York. The 

 leading varieties are Cad- 

 do Chief, Jennie 

 Lucas, Lone Star, 

 Newman, Potta- 

 wattamie, Robin- 

 son and Yellow 

 Transparent. 



E. The Mariana Group. The Mariana and De Cara- 

 deuc plums— and probably, also, the Hattie— constitute 

 a distinct class from any of the foregoing, differmg in 

 habit of tree ; very early flowering, elliptic-ovate, rather 



small and finely serrate dull leaves, glandless leaf -stalks, 

 soft, spherical, very juicy plums of a "sugar and water" 

 character, and broad, ovate stones, which are scarcely 

 pointed and prominently furrowed on the front edge. I 



1 



am now convinced that De Caradeuc is Myrobolan, and 

 that Mariana is either the same species or a hybrid be- 

 tween it and some American plum, possibly the Wild 

 Goose. This, I am aware, is a startling conclusion, par- 

 ticularly as the Mariana has come to be so extensively 

 used as a stock to replace the Myrobolan, which appears 

 to be used for this purpose much less than formerly. 



The Mariana, 

 shown in fig. 8 

 (page 602), is in 

 several respects 

 intermediate be- 

 tween Pruniis 

 ccrasif e y a , as 

 represented in 

 De Caradeuc, 

 tive American plums, particularly 



and the 



4.— Leaf of Clinton Plum 

 (Miner Group.) Full size. 



m the short-stemmed fruit, small, nearly sessile 

 and clustered later flowers, erect, narrow calyx 

 lobes, and spreading habit. It grows readily 

 from cuttings, and this, in connection with the 

 hardiness and vigor of the variety, and the 

 readiness with which it unites in graftage with several 

 species of prunus, has made it very popular as a stock. 

 The Myrobolan itself grows from cuttings, but in most 

 cases not to a profitable extent. 



