12 
orchards. Pear blight has never attacked Pyrus ovidea, which has been 
growing for twenty years in the Arboretum, or P. Bretschneideri. 
Plum-trees. North America is the real home of Plum-trees as it is 
of Hawthorns. The different species range across the continent from 
the valley of the St. Lawrence River to the Rio Grande. The species 
and individuals are most abundant in eastern and southern Kansas, 
eastern Oklahoma, southern Arkansas and Texas from the valley of 
the Red River to the Edwards Plateau, and the genus is represented 
in this region by more species than are found in all the world outside 
of North America. Some of the species are of considerable size and 
others are large or small shrubs which frequently spread in sandy soil 
into thickets covering acres. The first of the American Plums to flower 
in the Arboretum, the so-called Canada Plum, Prunus nigra, has already 
opened its flowers. This is a northern tree ranging in Canada from 
New Brunswick through the valley of the St. Lawrence River and along 
the northern shore of Lake Superior to Winnipeg. It occurs rather 
sparingly in northern New England, western New York and westward 
to Montana. It is a handsome little tree with dark close bark, a round- 
topped head' of spreading branches, wide, coarsely-toothed glandular 
leaves, and large flowers, which unlike those of other American Plum- 
trees turn pink as they begin to fade. Several forms grown for the 
excellence of their fruit are cultivated by pomologists. The flowers of 
Prunus nigra are followed in a few days by those of P. americana, 
the blue-fruited P. alleghaniensis, a native of southern Connecticut and 
western Pennsylvania, an interesting species of considerable ornamental 
value, P. Watsonii, the little Sand Plum of Kansas and Oklahoma, and 
P. Munsoniana of the Kansas to Texas region, the origin of Wild Goose 
and many other varieties cultivated for their fruit, and by P. hortulana, 
a native of the region from southern Illinois to southern Missouri and 
Oklahoma. This is perhaps the handsomest of the American Plum- 
trees and one of the last to flower. In cultivation it is a round-topped 
tree with wide-spreading branches. The flowers are not more than half 
an inch in diameter and open before the leaves which are narrow, long- 
pointed and lustrous. The fruit is scarlet, very lustrous, and looks like 
a large cherry. Forms of this tree, like Golden Beauty, Kanawha, Way- 
land and Cumberland, are grown and distributed by nurseries as fruit 
trees, but quite apart from the value of the fruit. The only Asiatic 
Wild Plum, P. salicina, blooms as early as P. nigra and is now in 
flower. As an ornamental tree this has no special value but it is es- 
teemed by pomologists and is now widely planted in this country in 
many forms for its edible red or yellow fruit. 
■ The Sugar Maple. The Sugar Maple is again exceptionally fully 
covered with its long clusters of expanded flowers, and just now is an 
object of great beauty and interest. A true lover of the country, life 
in cities and their suburbs has little attraction for the Sugar Maple, 
one of the most splendid of the whole genus. It needs the free and 
pure air of the forests and country roadsides, and finds its greatest 
happiness on the low hills of New England and Michigan, and in the 
rich protected valleys of the Appalachian Mountains. In such positions 
few trees surpass it in size or in the splendor of its autumn foliage. 
