14 
This tree is hardy but in the Arboretum it has been short-lived, and 
in this part of the country is only worth growing as a curiosity. 
Prunus nigra. Among American Plums in the Arboretum collection 
the so-called Canada Plum, Prunus nigra, is the earliest to bloom. 
It is a native of the northern border of the United States from New 
Brunswick westward, and is distinguished from the more southern 
Prunus americana by its larger and earlier flowers, the blunt teeth of 
the leaves and by the darker and closer bark. The flowers turn pink 
as they fade. The Canada Plum has produced some excellent seed- 
ling forms of garden Plums like Cheney, Itasca, Aitkin and Oxford 
which are esteemed and largely grown by pomologists. The flowers 
of the Canadian Plum will soon be followed by those of Prunus amer- 
icana, of the blue-fruited P. alleghaniensis, a native of southern Con- 
necticut and western Pennsylvania, an interesting species of consider- 
able ornamental value, of Prunus Watsonii, the little Sand Plum of 
Kansas and Oklahoma, of Prunus Munsoniana of the Kansas to Texas 
region, the' wild form of the Wild Goose and many other varieties cul- 
tivated for their fruit, and of Prunus 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 small, often not more than half of 
an inch in diameter, and open before the leaves which are narrow, 
long-pointed and lustrous. The globose fruit is scarlet, very lustrous, 
and looks like a large cherry. Forms of this tree like Golden Beauty, 
Kanawha, Wayland and Cumberland, are grown and distributed by 
nurserymen as fruit trees; but without regard to the edible value of 
its fruit Prunus hortulana is worth a place in every northern garden 
for its beauty of habit, foliage and fruit. The Plum trees are planted 
at the entrance to the Shrub Collection from the Meadow Road, and 
■there is a supplementary collection of young plants with many Ameri- 
can species and varieties near the top of Peter’s Hill. 
Prunus dasycarpa. In the Arboretum this tree has been for many 
springs covered with its large showy flowers. This is the Purple or 
Black Apricot, so-called on account of the dull purple color of the 
fruit. It is a small tree with a short trunk covered with dark bark, 
and wide-spreading branches. A native of eastern Siberia or Man- 
churia, this Apricot is very hardy and is well worth cultivating in the 
northern states as a flowering plant, for the fruit, which has rarely 
ripened in the Arboretum, has little value in comparison with that of 
the common Apricot. 
A Japanese Apricot under the name of “Mikado,” a form of the 
common Apricot {Prunus Armeniaca), has been grown in the Arbore- 
tum for several years where it makes a small tree with erect branches 
and, flowering freely every spring, has proved here one of the hand- 
somest and most satisfactory plants of its class. 
