6 BULLETIN 179, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
if only one, whether it is Prunus angustifolia or P.americana. Thomas 
Jefferson (34, p. 63) identified ‘Prunus sylvestris fructu majori” as 
the “Cherokee plumb,” and ‘‘Prunus sylvestris fructu minori” as | 
the ‘Wild plumb” (Prunus americana). 
The next species to receive attention by a botanist was Prunus 
pumila, which had been introduced into the gardens of France and 
was described by Duhamel (19, p. 149) about 1755, as follows: 
Cerasus pumila, Canadensis oblongo angusto folio, fructu parvo, Cerisier nain & 
feuilles de Saule. Ragouminer, ou Nega, ou Minel de Canada. 
Prunus pumila was the first to be given a binomial name, which 
distinction it received in 1767. 
Humphrey Marshall (51, p. 110-114), who was the first author to. 
treat any considerable number of species, described the following: 
Prunus americana, ‘‘Large yellow sweet plumb”; P. angustifolia, ‘‘Chicasaw 
plumb”; P. mississippi, ‘‘Crimson plumb”; P. maritima, ‘‘Seaside plumb”; P 
declinata, ‘‘Dwarf plumb”; and ‘‘Prunus-Cerasus montana, Mountain Bird-Cherry- 
Tree.”’ 
One of Marshall’s species, P. mississippi, is not identifiable; the 
descriptions of the others are characteristic, however, and they are 
still recognized as distinct species, although some of them had been 
earlier described. A few of the species now known were unrecog- 
nized until recently, and perhaps others yet remain to be distin- 
guished. 
HORTICULTURAL HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT. 
Turning now to the recognition and development of native plums 
by pomologists, it is found that they were at first slow to recog- 
nize the value and distinctness of the American species, although in 
later years they have been almost the only ones who have studied 
the genus critically. 
The earliest works devoted to fruits and fruit growing in America 
do not appear to make any reference to the native species, the first 
accessible reference being by Bernard M’Mahon (50, p. 588), who, in 
1806, at the end of a list of plum varieties lists ‘‘Chicasaw, Prunus 
chicasa,” but gives no description or note concerning the species. 
Another author, William Coxe (15, p. 232), writing in 1817, says 
that plums are— 
Natives of the United States, in many parts of which they are found in great abun- 
dance, in numerous varieties of Colour, form and size, many of them in good flavour. 
According to the same author, who lists 18 varieties, those cultivated 
in the gardens were either brought from Europe or produced from 
the stones of imported plums. 
A few years later James Thacher (70, p. 223) says: 
Itis a fortunate circumstance that there are, according to Mr. Prince, of Long-Island, 
some kinds of plum not subject to the attack of the insect [the curculio] which are the 
