Chapter I: Edible Plums (4)

There is an abundance of herbarium material to show that _Prunus hortulana_ as originally described by Bailey, with the varieties named as the type, leaving out Wild Goose, which is but doubtfully included, and as represented by Waugh’s “Wayland group,” is to be found wild in Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, Missouri and northern Arkansas, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. The writer has not seen material from states adjoining those named but the species is probably more widely spread than the range given indicates. Further, the cultivated varieties named by Bailey as members of his species, to which should be added at least American Golden, Benson, Columbia, Crimson Beauty, Dunlap, Kanawha, Leptune, Moreman, Reed, Wayland and World Beater, are so similar in all their characters and constitute a group so distinct from any other species that it is impossible to place them otherwise than in a distinct species. A group of hybrids could hardly be so uniform, and, moreover, these varieties contain characters, like late blooming, late fruiting, color, texture and flavor of fruit, leaf-serrations and deposits of red cork-cells in the bark, which other native species do not have, thereby shutting out the probability of the hybridity theory in which the supposed parents are _Prunus americana_ and _Prunus angustifolia_. Lastly, and most convincing, varieties of the species come true to seed, which of course, would not be the case were these plums hybrids. From seed borne in 1893 this Station has had six seedlings of World Beater and four of Golden Beauty attain the age of sixteen years with more or less fruit for thirteen successive years. The seedlings could hardly be distinguished from the parents and showed no pronounced characters of either of the species of which _Prunus hortulana_ has been supposed to be the hybrid offspring.

Of the sixteen varieties named as certainly belonging to this species, ten came from wild plants or seeds. Two of the remainder came from planted seeds and the origin of the remaining four is not known. One of the varieties from the wild, Golden Beauty, if its history as commonly given is correct, came from the Colorado River in western Texas. The Golden Beauty now under cultivation almost certainly belongs to _Prunus hortulana_, though it differs somewhat from other varieties of the group, but how it could have come from the wild in western Texas, so far from the usual range of the species, is at present unexplainable. This and other idiosyncrasies of distribution were reasons given by Bailey and Waugh for calling this species a group of hybrids. A careful study of localities from which all other Hortulana varieties than Golden Beauty have come shows them to be well within the range of _Prunus hortulana_. The fact that Golden Beauty is perfectly hardy at Geneva, and according to Waugh fairly so at Burlington, Vermont, suggests either that what we have as Golden Beauty did not originate in south central Texas or that the plant from which it came must have been introduced there within comparatively recent times.

_Prunus hortulana_ gives to American pomology a very distinct and valuable group of plums which fortunately are adapted to a wide range of conditions, especially of climate. The Hortulanas are particularly well suited to the Mississippi Valley and southern states and fruit well as far north and east as New York. The product of Wayland, Kanawha and Golden Beauty, best known of the plums under discussion, is especially suitable for preserves, spicing and jelly, being unsurpassed by any other of our plums excepting the Damsons for these purposes. They are quite too acid and the flesh clings too tenaciously to the stone for dessert plums or even for ordinary culinary purposes. These plums, having firm flesh and tough skins, ship and keep splendidly and since they are the latest of the native plums in ripening, extend the season for this fruit very materially. The Wayland-like plums make very good stocks upon which may be grafted not only the varieties of the same species but those of the other native species as well. A point of especial merit with these plums as stocks is that they do not sucker as do most other species. Unfortunately they cannot be propagated from cuttings and the difficulty of obtaining seed at present precludes their use very generally. The Hortulana plums hybridize freely with other native species and their hybrids are such as to commend this species very highly to plum-breeders for hybridization.

Waugh[119] has given the name _Prunus hortulana robusta_ to a group of hybrid plums of which _Prunus triflora_ and various native varieties are the parents. For most part these hybrids resemble the American more than the Asiatic parent. Since these plums differ so among themselves it is doubtful if more can be said as to the characters of Waugh’s group than to mention the above resemblance. Some thirty or more varieties fall into this group of which America, Golden, Juicy, Ruby, Waugh and Gonzales are chief.

=PRUNUS HORTULANA MINERI= Bailey

=1.= Bailey _Cornell Sta. Bul._ =38=:23, 1892. =2.= Waugh _Vt.
Sta. An. Rpt._ =10=:103. 1897. =3.= Britton and Brown =2=:247,
1897.

It is impossible from present knowledge to say certainly whether the Miner-like plums put by Bailey into a botanical sub-division of _Prunus hortulana_ are extreme variations of the species or, as Bailey in his last accounts and Waugh at all times have supposed, are hybrids between _Prunus hortulana_ and _Prunus americana_. It is certain that all of these plums are intermediate in some characters between the two species named; neither botanists nor pomologists can agree as to whether certain varieties belong to the one or the other botanical division. There are, however, in several herbaria, specimens from the wild, and from different localities, that indicate that there is a distinct plum toward the northern limit of the range of _Prunus hortulana_ which, if a natural hybrid, is of so ancient hybridity that the plants now come measurably true to type. The chief representatives of the Miner-like plums under cultivation, as Miner, Forest Rose, Prairie Flower and Clinton, are so like these wild plums as to lead the writer to believe that Bailey’s botanical sub-division is justified and is worth continuing even though a considerable number of the varieties now put with Miner, most of which have originated under cultivation, are hybrids and that the wild plums may have come from natural hybrids of more or less remote time.

The sub-species differs from the species in having shorter, stiffer, less graceful branches; leaves smaller, thicker, rougher and of a bluish-green cast; the blossoms of the two are much the same but those of the sub-species open a few days earlier; the fruits of the sub-species are larger than those of the species, lighter red, have more bloom, are less firm in texture, ripen earlier, yet later than those of any other species, and are quite different in flavor, having more nearly the taste of the fruit of _Prunus americana_; the stones, as well as the fruits, are very different, being in the sub-species larger, broader, flatter, smoother and less pointed. The differences in fruit and stone, and to some extent in the leaves, can be seen if the color-plates of Forest Rose and Wayland be compared.

In fruit-growing, the Miner-like plums behave in general much like the Americana plums. In some respects the fruits are an improvement upon those of the Americana varieties. For example the skin in the Miner-like varieties is usually less tough; is brighter in color and the flavor, in most cases, is a little better. These plums seem to be nearly or quite as hardy as the Americanas and are adapted to quite as wide a range of soils. Presumably they have the same value as stocks, though they seem not to have been tried for this purpose and they should have equal value at least in plant-breeding. The trees of the Miner-like plums are rather more amenable to domestication than those of _Prunus americana_ having as orchard plants straighter trunks, more symmetrical and less unkempt tops and making larger trees. The fruits ripen so late as to make the varieties of this group especially valuable in prolonging the season for plums in regions where native varieties are grown exclusively. About twenty varieties of this sub-species are under cultivation.

=12.= =PRUNUS NIGRA= Aiton

=1.= Aiton _Hort. Kew._ =2=:165. 1789. =2.= Sims _Bot. Mag._
1117. 1808. =3.= Pursh _Fl. Am. Sept._ =1=:331. 1814. =4.=
Torrey _Fl. U. S._ =1=:469. 1824. =5.= Sargent _Silva N. Am._
=4=:15, Pl. 149. 1892. =6.= Small _Torrey Bot. Club Bul._
=21=:301. 1894.

_Cerasus nigra._ =7.= Loiseleur _Nouveau Duhamel_ =5=:32. 1812.

_P. americana_ (in part). =8.= Torrey and Gray _Fl. N. Am_.
=1=:407. 1840. 9. Torrey _Fl. N. Y._ =1=:194. 1843. =10.=
Emerson _Trees of Mass._ Ed. 2, =2=:511. 1846. =11.= Nuttall
_Silva_ =2=:19. 1852. =12.= Sargent _10th Cen. U. S_. =9=:65.
1883. =13.= Watson and Coulter _Gray’s Man._ Ed. =6=:151. 1889.
=14.= Gray _For. Trees N. A._ 46, Pl. 1891.

_P. americana nigra._ =15.= Waugh _Vt. Sta. Bul._ =53=:60, fig.
1896. =16.= Ibid. _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =10=:102. 1897. =17.=
Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1449. 1901.

_P. mollis._ =18.= Torrey _Fl. U. S._ =1=:470. 1824.

Tree small, seldom exceeding twenty feet in height; trunk
attaining six or eight inches in diameter, bearing the head
at three to five feet from the ground; bark thin, one-quarter
inch thick, from dark red to a light gray-brown, rough, but not
shaggy, surface covered with thick scales; branches upright,
stout, rigid, forming a compact rather narrow head, armed with
stout, spiny spurs; branchlets more or less zigzag, glabrous or
tomentose, green, later becoming reddish-brown; lenticels few
or many, pale, slightly raised.

Winter-buds of medium size, conical or long-acuminate,
reddish-brown; leaves large, broad-oval, ovate or obovate,
with a long acuminate apex and cuneate or subcordate base;
margins doubly crenate-serrate with teeth tipped with glands
which disappear as the leaves mature; thin and firm in texture;
upper surface light green, glabrous, the under surface paler,
pubescent when young and pubescent at maturity on some soils;
midribs coarse but veins rather slender; petioles two-thirds
inch long, rather stout, with two, sometimes but one, large,
dark red glands near the blade, pubescent and tinged with red;
stipules lanceolate, sometimes lobed, one-half inch in length.

Flowers expanding early, before or with the leaves, large,
sometimes one and one-half inches across; borne in three or
four-flowered lateral umbels on slender, glabrous, red pedicels
one-half inch or more in length; calyx-tube obconic, outer
surface red, inner surface pink; calyx-lobes glabrous on both
surfaces or with a few, straight, scattered hairs on the inner
surface, pinkish, acute, glandular; petals pink, turning a
darker pink in fading, rather broadly ovate, apex rounded,
base a short claw, margins erose; stamens with yellow anthers;
filaments one-half inch long; pistils glabrous, shorter than
the stamens.

Fruit ripening comparatively early; globose or oval, usually
somewhat oblong, an inch or more through the long diameter,
red, orange or yellowish in color, with little or no bloom;
skin thick, tough and astringent; flesh yellow, firm, meaty,
often acid or astringent; stone usually clinging, large, oval,
compressed, thick-walled, with a sharp ridge on the ventral and
a slight groove on the dorsal suture.

It is possible that a group of Nigras, those occurring in western Wisconsin and Minnesota and about the upper extremity of Lake Superior ought to be described as a sub-species since they have a somewhat different aspect of tree and the fruits are a darker shade of red and show more bloom; the calyx is more pubescent and the calyx-glands more sessile. The differences in environment may change these characters, as indicated above, but they seem very constant in the cultivated varieties of the groups, most of which come from the west, and therefore sufficient to segregate this form from the species.

The Nigra is the wild plum of Canada. Its most common name, “Canada Plum,” is distinctly applicable and is here supplanted by “Nigra” only for the sake of uniformity. This is undoubtedly the dried plum which Jacques Cartier saw in the canoes of Indians, in his first voyage of discovery up the St. Lawrence in 1534.[120] These primitive prunes, Cartier says, the Indians called “honesta.” In his second voyage, the next year, he enumerates among other fruits the plum, “prunier,” growing on the “Ysle de Bacchus,” named from its “Vignes.” Dried plums, we learn from many later accounts, were a staple article of the winter diet of the savages. That the Indian tended the trees is probable, for the early explorers often record that plantations of plums were found about the aboriginal towns. Undoubtedly the range of this species was greatly extended by the Indians.

The Nigra is the most northern of the American plums, being an inhabitant of a region bounded on the north by a line passing from southern New Foundland westward to the Strait of Mackinac and thence southward to Lansing, Michigan. Its southern boundary can be but illy defined, but the species is common in New England, northern New York, where it is sometimes cultivated about houses, and westward at least as far as the eastern shore of Lake Michigan for the species, while the western form reaches the western boundary of Minnesota at least. Small[121] reports it as far south in the Appalachian System as northern Georgia. In the great region outlined above it is distributed in more or less scattered localities, being found usually in the valleys of rivers and streams, though often on high lands and in open woods, in the last locations preferring a limestone formation.

There has been much discussion as to whether _Prunus nigra_ should be given specific rank or be united with _Prunus americana_, either as a part of that species or as a botanical variety of it. Until the revival by Sargent in 1892 of the name given the group by Aiton in 1789, the botanists of the latter half of the Nineteenth Century had for most part described the two groups under _Prunus americana_. Since Sargent’s re-establishment of the species, botanists have very generally regarded it as worthy of the rank. Bailey and Waugh, the leading horticultural authorities on plums, however, consider Nigra as but a botanical variety of Americana. The taxonomic characters of _Prunus nigra_ seem to the writers of _The Plums of New York_ to be as distinct as those of several other of the native species of _Prunus_, and since the species now is generally recognized by botanists, we have considered it in this work as distinct from _Prunus americana_.

The two species may usually be distinguished by the following differences: (1) The general aspect of the trees is very different. The tree of Americana is larger, the top is more spreading, and its branches longer, with more twigs, more slender and more pendulous. The bark on the trunk is lighter-colored and much more shaggy than in Nigra. (2) The wood of Nigra is tougher and the trees do not break as readily as those of Americana. The wood is also lighter in color. (3) The leaves of Nigra are larger, broader and the serrations are not so deeply incised nor so often double. Very distinct and very constant are the glands to be found on the teeth of the serrations on the young leaves of Nigra. These glands disappear as the leaves grow older, leaving a calloused point which makes the serrations of Nigra rounded, while those of Americana are acute, this being one of the most constant differences. (4) The flowers of Nigra appear several days earlier, are larger and are more pink than those of Americana. (5) The calyx-lobes of Nigra are glandular and the leaf-stalks are biglandular, characters usually not found in Americana. The calyx in all its parts is glabrous or at least far less pubescent than in Americana and if present the hairs are short and stiff, whereas in Americana the pubescence is soft. (6) The fruit of Nigra ripens earlier and is darker in color with less bloom and is more oblong than that of Americana. The skin of the plum is thinner and is not so objectionable either cooked or eaten out of hand. (7) The stone of Nigra is usually larger, flatter and more strongly crested. The characters of the two species vary much in different individuals and there are many intermediate forms but the differences seem as constant as between other species of this variable genus.

The Nigra plums are important horticulturally because they can be grown in somewhat colder regions than the Americanas. They not only endure more cold than the last named group, but their tough wood enables them to stand better the weight of snows and the stress of winds. Their earliness, too, prolongs the season for this type of fruit and in regions where the season is short they may be grown with more certainty than other groups. In habits and characters other than those named they are so like the Americana as to need no further discussion. About forty varieties of this species are under cultivation.

=13.= =PRUNUS ALLEGHANIENSIS= Porter

=1.= Porter _Bot. Gaz._ =2=:85. 1877. =2.= Ibid. _Gar. and For._
=3=:428, fig. 53. 1890. =3.= Sargent _Sil. N. Am._ =4=:27, Pl. 153.
1892. =4.= Bailey _Ev. Nat. Fr._ 225. 1898.

Tree low, slender, straggling, fifteen to eighteen feet in
height, or a low shrub; trunk-diameter from five to eight
inches; bark dark brown, surface fissured and scaly; branches
numerous, upright, rigid, seldom spiny; branchlets pubescent,
becoming glabrous and red, turning to dark brown; lenticels
many, small, white.

Leaves ovate-oblong or lanceolate, sometimes obovate, apex
acute or acuminate, base rounded, margin sharply serrate,
teeth fine and tipped with glands, in texture thick and firm;
upper surface dark green and glabrous; lower surface light
green, glabrous except on the veins and midrib; petioles short,
slender, pubescent; glands two, large, at the base of the blade.

Flowers white, fading to pink, one-half inch across, appearing
with the leaves; borne in two to five-flowered umbels; pedicels
slender, finely tomentose, from one-fourth to one-half inch
in length; calyx-tube narrowly obconic; calyx-lobes entire,
pubescent on the outer, tomentose on the inner surface; petals
rounded but narrowing into claws at the base; filaments and
ovary glabrous; anthers often reddish; style slender with a
funnel-shaped apex.

Fruit matures in summer or early autumn; from one-quarter to
three-quarters inch in diameter, sub-globose or ovoid, dark
blue or purple with heavy bloom; skin thick and tough; flesh
yellow, juicy, acid and somewhat astringent; stone clinging to
the flesh, turgid, acute at the ends, thin-walled, ridged on
the ventral and grooved on the dorsal suture.

In leaf, flower and tree _Prunus alleghaniensis_ resembles _Prunus americana_. The species has long been known to be distinct, however, having been first distinguished by J. R. Lowrie of Warriorsmark, Pennsylvania, in 1859,[122] and was published as such in 1877, when T. C. Porter of Lafayette College described it as _Prunus alleghaniensis_. It differs from _Prunus americana_ chiefly in the smaller size of the plant, smaller leaves and flowers, in color of flowers which fade to pink in this species, and in fruit-characters. The fruit matures earlier, is much smaller in size, is more globose, and is a dark purple or blue with very heavy bloom. The skin is thick and tough and while the texture of the flesh is as good as that of the wild Americanas the flavor is much more astringent. The stone is more swollen. The plant is commonly but a shrub, usually found along fence rows and the borders of woodlands, but intermingled among old thickets of this kind there are often a few small trees. It is a hardy species, very productive, and seemingly but little attacked by either insects or fungi, being especially exempt from black-knot.[123] In the wild state it produces great numbers of suckers which seem to spring very readily from a bruise or an exposed root.

The range of _Prunus alleghaniensis_ is exceedingly limited. It is found in abundance only in a small territory in central Pennsylvania, being of most frequent occurrence in the barrens of northern Huntingdon County, extending from there north into Center County and northwestward over the Alleghany Mountains into Clearfield and Elk counties. It grows for the most part in elevated lands of the wildest character, being found on low, moist soils, on high and dry barrens and on limestone cliffs, reaching its greatest size in the last situation.

Specimens identified as _Prunus alleghaniensis_ have been found in at least two places in Connecticut and the writer has just seen specimens of a closely allied form collected by W. F. Wight of the United States Department of Agriculture a few miles south of Houghton Lake, Roscommon County, Michigan.

This plum is not yet introduced into cultivation and it is doubtful if the wild fruits have sufficient merit to make an attempt at domestication promising. While the wild fruits are locally used for various culinary purposes it is so much inferior to other native plums, being almost uneatable unless cooked, that its cultivation would hardly warrant the effort. Arboretum specimens of the tree show it to be somewhat desirable as an ornamental, being a small, compact, upright plant, very floriferous, and bearing an abundance of rather attractive fruit.

=14.= =PRUNUS SUBCORDATA= Bentham

=1.= Bentham _Pl. Hartweg._ 308. 1848. =2.= Torrey _Pac. R.
Rpt._ =4=:82. 1854. =3.= Brewer and Watson _Bot. Calif._
=1=:167. 1880 (in part). =4.= Lemmon _Pittonia_ =2=:68. 1890.
=5.= Greene _Fl. Francis_ =1=:49. 1891. =6.= Bailey _Cornell
Sta. Bul._ =38=:76. 1892. =7.= Sargent _Sil. N. Am._ =4=:31,
32, Pl. 154. 1892.

Tree small, rarely attaining a height of twenty-five feet,
sometimes a shrub ten or twelve feet high and often a bush
but three or four feet in height; trunk medium in length with
a diameter of 8 to 12 inches; bark gray-brown and deeply
fissured; branches stout and spreading; branchlets glabrous
or pubescent, bright red becoming darker red and finally a
dark-brown or gray; lenticels minute, whitish.

Leaves round-ovate, sub-cordate or truncate, or sometimes
cuneate at the base; margins either sharply or obtusely
serrate, sometimes doubly serrate; young leaves pubescent but
at maturity nearly glabrous, somewhat coriaceous, dark green
on the upper and pale green on the lower surface, with very
conspicuous midribs and veins; stipules acute-lanceolate,
caducous.

Flowers white, fading to rose, about an inch across; appearing
before the leaves; usually borne in threes, often in pairs
on short pubescent pedicels; calyx campanulate, with lobes
pubescent on the outer and hairy on the inner surface; petals
twice the length of the sepals, obovate, and contracted into
short claws; filaments and ovary glabrous; style slender and
funnel-shaped at the apex.

Fruit ripens in late summer or early autumn; roundish or
oblong, about one inch in length, borne on a short, stout stem,
dark red or purplish; flesh subacid, well-flavored, clinging
to the flattish or turgid stone which varies greatly in size,
pointed at both ends, crested on the ventral edge and grooved
on the other.

_Prunus subcordata_, the Pacific or Western plum, is an inhabitant of the region east of the Coast Range from southern Oregon to central California. It is so rarely found on the seacoast as to have escaped the attention of the early botanists and remained unknown until the middle of the Nineteenth Century, when Hartweg, working in the interior of California, brought the plant to notice. This wild plum is not common except in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California and southern Oregon, where it often forms thickets of small trees along streams, thriving in fresh, fertile, sandy soils, in canons, on hillsides or in the forests of yellow pine which are found in this region. Hammond[124] writes of it growing here as usually a small tree but often seen as a shrub from four to five feet high. Of the frequency of the occurrence he says: “It often sets the whole countryside ablaze in the autumn, with the abundance of its scarlet and crimson colors, mingled, of course, with red and yellow, and garnished with a sprinkling of green.” Sandberg[125] reports having collected _Prunus subcordata_ as far north and east as Nez Perces County, northern Idaho, in the Craig Mountains at an altitude of about 2,900 feet, but this report is based on an error in determination, the specimen collected by Sandberg being clearly a European species. The tree and the fruit vary greatly according to the locality.

This Subcordata plum is one of the standard food products of the aborigines in the region in which it grows, being eaten either raw or cooked; and it is sometimes dried in considerable quantities at the harvesting places and carried considerable distances to the Indian villages.[126] The trappers, the first men to enter the habitat of this plum, followed by the gold-seekers and ranchers, all knew and esteemed the fruit. The early settlers regarded it as the most useful of all the wild fruits of the Coast and attempts were made at an early date to domesticate it. Of these Wickson says:[127]

“In 1856 there was, on the Middle Yuba River, not far from
Forest City, in Sierra County, a wayside establishment known as
‘Plum Valley Ranch,’ so-called from the great quantity of wild
plums growing on and about the place. The plum by cultivation
gave a more vigorous growth and larger fruit. Transplanted
from the mountains into the valley they are found to ripen
earlier. Transplanted from the mountains to a farm near the
coast, in Del Norte County, they did not thrive. One variety,
moved from the hills near Petaluma in 1858, was grown as an
orchard tree for fifteen years, and improved both in growth and
quality of fruit by cultivation.... Recently excellent results
have been reported from the domestication of the native plum
in Nevada County, and fruit shown at the State Fair of 1888
gave assurance that by cultivation and by selecting seedlings
valuable varieties can be obtained. It is stated that in Sierra
County the wild plum is the only plum which finds a market at
good prices, and that cultivated gages, blue and egg plums
scarcely pay for gathering. The wild plum makes delicious
preserves.”

In its typical form _Prunus subcordata_ is a shrub and is often only a low bush but under the most favorable conditions it attains the dimension and shape of a small tree. In its roundish, roughish leaves it so closely resembles the Old World types of plums that it becomes the nearest approach to them to be found among our American species. But in the globular, red or purple subacid fruit it betrays its affinity to the American plums, as it does also in the flat, sometimes turgid, smooth stone to which the flesh tenaciously clings. The flowers are white, fading to rose and borne abundantly, making the plant an attractive ornamental in blooming time as it is also in the autumn when the foliage turns to brilliant red, scarlet or crimson with touches of yellow. The fruit is sometimes so poor in quality as to be inedible but on the other hand is sometimes quite equal to some of the cultivated plums, especially in its botanical variety, Kelloggii.

That the fruit is capable of improvement by the selection of seedling varieties and useful in hybridizing with other species can hardly be doubted. Luther Burbank, under date of December 6, 1909, writes in this regard as follows:

“The _Prunus subcordata_, as it grows wild, bears very heavily
even on bushes two and three feet in height, bending the bushes
flat on the ground when the fruit is ripe. This is a very
beautiful sight. The wild ones, although almost invariably
bright red and spherical, are sometimes, though rarely found,
yellow. When the seed of the yellow fruit is planted a certain
portion of red ones are produced, but all, practically, of the
same size and quality as the original. The trees of Subcordata
in the wild state are greatly variable in growth, generally
much more so than in the fruit. The fruit, however, varies much
in quality, but it is promiscuously gathered by those living in
the vicinity of the plum grounds and considered most excellent
for cooking. I commenced working on this species about
twenty-two years ago and have not carried it on as extensively
as with the Maritima, as I found it subject to plum-pockets,
but by very careful selection I have produced most magnificent
plums, oval in form or round, sweet as honey or sweet as the
French Prune, greatly enlarged in size, tree improved in growth
and enormously productive, the different varieties ripening
through a long season. Most of these are light and dark red.
Some of them, when cooked, are far superior to cranberries,
having the exact delicious flavor so much liked in this fruit,
and the same color.

“From the crosses of Subcordata with the Americana, Nigra,
Triflora and other species, some of the most beautiful and
highest flavored fruits which I have ever seen have been
produced. These vary in color from almost pure white to
light yellow, transparent flesh color, pink, light crimson,
scarlet, dark crimson and purple; in form round, egg-shaped
or elongated-oval; trees both upright and weeping, enormously
productive, and in one or two cases the fruit, by hundreds of
experts, has been pronounced the best plum in flavor of any in
existence. Most of these selections are extremely productive.”

Wickson[128] reports that the roots of Subcordata have been used more or less as stocks for other plums but show no marked advantages over the species commonly used for this purpose. Most of those who have experimented with it condemn it as a stock because it dwarfs the cion and suckers badly.

_Prunus oregana_ Greene[129] is from its description an interesting plum of which, however, it has been impossible to secure a glimpse even of herbarium material and of which we can therefore, only publish Greene’s description as follows:

“Evidently allied to P. _subcordata_, but leaves little more than an inch long, subcoriaceous, pubescent on both faces, in outline oval or broadly elliptic, never subcordate, commonly acutish at both ends, serrulate; flowers unknown; fruits in pairs or threes, on pedicels one-half inch long or more, densely tomentose when very young, more thinly so, yet distinctly tomentulose when half-grown.

“Known only from specimens collected on the Yanex Indian reservation in southeastern Oregon, by Mrs. Austin, in 1893; and a most remarkable species, as connecting true _Prunus_ with _Amygdalus_. But that it is a plum and not an almond is evident.”

Without any first-hand knowledge of this species it is thought best to consider it only under the allied species, _Prunus subcordata_.

=PRUNUS SUBCORDATA KELLOGGII= Lemmon

=1.= Lemmon _Pittonia_ =2=:67. 1890. =2.= Wickson _Calif. Fr._
Ed. =2=:51. 1891. =3.= Greene _Fl. Francis_ =1=:50. 1891. =4.=
Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1448. 1901.

_Prunus subcordata kelloggii_, named in honor of Dr. Albert Kellogg, an early explorer and settler in California, is distinguished from the species in being a somewhat taller and more slender plant.[130] The branches and bark are of a characteristic ash-gray, so distinct in color from _Prunus subcordata_ that this is often called the “Gray-branch” plum. The leaves are orbicular or elliptical, not cordate, cuneate at the base and nearly glabrous. The fruit is bright yellow instead of red and larger than that of the species, being an inch or more in diameter with a more nearly free stone. This plum inhabits the region of Mount Shasta where it has been known since the time of the early gold diggers, attracting more attention as a food, and promising more for the cultivator than Subcordata. Botanists seem to have given this plum comparatively little attention and careful study may give it specific rank. Locally, and now somewhat in the trade, it is known as the Sisson plum, after a Mr. Sisson, living near Mount Shasta, who has brought it to notice. At present the Kelloggii seems to be the branch of promise for the improvement of the wild plums of the western coast.

=15. PRUNUS UMBELLATA= Elliott

=1.= Elliott _Sk. Bot. S. C. and Ga._ =1=:541. 1821. 2. Sargent
_10th Cen. U. S._ =9=:67. 1883. 3. Ibid. _Sil. N. Am._ =4=:33.
Pl. 155. 1892. =4.= Waugh _Plum Cult._ 91. 1901. =5.= Mohr
_Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._ =6=:551. 1901.

_Cerasus umbellata_. =6.= Torrey and Gray _Fl. N. Am._ =1=:409.
1840.

Tree low, sometimes a shrub, seldom over twenty feet in
height; trunk short, usually crooked, attaining a thickness
of ten inches; bark dark brown and scaly; branches spreading,
slender, twiggy but spineless; branchlets at first pubescent
but becoming glabrous, bright red turning dark brown the second
year; lenticels few, oblong, yellowish.

Leaves oblong-ovate, or oblong-obovate to oblong, thin and
membranaceous, acute at the apex but usually obtuse or cordate
at the base; margins closely and evenly serrate with glandular
teeth, upper surface dark green and glabrous, lower surface
pale green and more or less pubescent; petioles stout, glabrous
or sometimes pubescent; glands usually two, sometimes wanting,
large, dark, at the base of the leaf; stipules lanceolate,
small, caducous.

Flowers medium in size, appearing before and with the leaves;
usually borne in four-flowered umbels; calyx-tube obconic, its
lobes entire, outer surface glabrous or pubescent, the inner
densely tomentose; petals white, orbicular, clawed.

Fruit matures in late summer; one-half inch in diameter, nearly
round, without cavity or suture, borne on a slender pedicel
three-quarters inch long, orange-red or bright red to purple or
nearly black, covered with a thin bloom; skin thick and tough;
flesh coarse, thick, acid or astringent, scarcely edible; stone
nearly free, flattened, acute at both ends, rugose, thin-walled.

_Prunus umbellata_, the Sloe, Black Sloe or Hog Plum, Oldfield, and sometimes Chickasaw and Bullace of the South, is found along the seaboard from South Carolina to central Florida, thence westward to the Gulf and along its shores to Texas. Inland it is found as far north as middle Georgia,[131] Alabama and Mississippi and southern Arkansas. Though very common in localities in the region outlined, there are vast areas of this territory in which it is scarcely found, preferring bottom lands of rivers and rich, moist soils in some instances and dry, sandy copses, open woods and borders of fields in others. In flower and fruit it is a handsome and conspicuous plant, yet, as the references show, the early botanists did not describe it, and even Elliott, who gave it its name, in 1821, passed it by with a scant description. Its neglect by the several famous botanists of the Eighteenth Century who explored this region must be attributed to their confusing it with _Prunus angustifolia_ and _Prunus maritima_, one or the other of which is found in most of the region, and to the idiosyncrasies of the distribution of _Prunus umbellata_.

The fruit of this species is unfit for dessert purposes but is commonly gathered for culinary use and sometimes is offered for sale in the markets of the South, being highly esteemed for pies, jams and jellies. There appear to have been no efforts made to domesticate it, however, and since it is quite inferior in fruit-characters to others of the native plums, efforts to that end are probably not worth while.

=PRUNUS UMBELLATA INJUCUNDA= (Small) Sargent

=1.= Sargent _Sil. N. Am._ =13=:21. 1902.

_Prunus injucunda_. =2.= Small _Torrey Bot. Club Bul._ =25=:149.
1898. =3.= Mohr _Ibid._ =26=:118. 1899. =4.= Ibid. _Cont. U. S.
Nat. Herb._ =6=:552. 1901. =5.= Bailey _Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1449.
1901.

Tree low, seldom twenty feet in height, often a straggling
shrub; trunk short, crooked, attaining a diameter of eight
inches; bark dark brown, nearly black; branches slender, rigid,
twiggy and somewhat spiny; branchlets velvety becoming purplish
and finally a dull gray; lenticels few, yellowish.

Leaves oblong-ovate to obovate, taper-pointed at the apex and
obtuse or rounded at the base, margins closely and finely
toothed, thin in texture; upper surface yellowish-green,
wrinkled and more or less pubescent, lower surface densely
pubescent and with a prominent yellowish midrib and rather
prominent lateral veins; petioles stout, one-half inch in
length, very pubescent; stipules lanceolate, small, caducous.

Flowers medium in size or small, usually appearing before the
leaves; in four or five-flowered sub-sessile umbels; pedicels
slender, three-quarters inch in length, very pubescent;
calyx-tube obconic, tomentose, with erect, entire, sharply
pointed, ciliate, tomentose lobes; petals white, orbicular,
clawed; filaments and base of pistil tomentose.

Fruit maturing in late summer, three-quarters inch long,
oblong, with but a trace of cavity and suture, dark purple with
light bloom; flesh thin, sour and very astringent; skin thick,
tough; scarcely edible; stone ovoid, long, flat, roughish,
pointed at both ends with a groove on one edge and a grooved
ridge on the other.

In 1898 Small described _Prunus injucunda_ as a new species from what had hitherto been considered a part of _Prunus umbellata_. Sargent, whom we follow, gives it as a botanical variety of _Prunus umbellata_. Small says that the two differ as follows: _Prunus injucunda_ has “a more rigid habit and the foliage, including the branchlets, is velvety tomentose. In place of the sub-globose drupe of _Prunus umbellata_ we find an oblong fruit of an extremely bitter taste. The stone is correspondingly lengthened.” To these differences may be added tomentose or pubescent leaves, hairy umbels, and tomentose calyx and pistil, as characters not found in _Prunus umbellata_ though there are occasional pubescent individuals in the species.

Small first collected _Prunus injucunda_ in sandy soil in the granite districts about the base of Little Stone Mountain, Georgia, and reports it as occurring about Stone Mountain. Mohr reports the plant on rocky summits and among the sandstone cliffs of Alpine Mountain, Talladego County, Alabama, as a low, unsightly shrub, four feet in height, with short, straggling branches. The wild fruit is seldom fit for domestic use and with so much better material in other species the fruit-grower can hardly afford to spend time in an attempt to domesticate this one.

=16.= =PRUNUS MITIS= Beadle

=1.= Beadle _Bilt. Bot. Stud._ =1=:162. 1902. =2.= Britton and
Brown _N. Am. Trees_ 489. 1908.

Tree small, maximum height twenty-five feet; bark dark brown
or reddish-gray; branches spreading or ascending, usually
unarmed; branchlets glabrous, glaucous; leaves thin, elliptic,
oblong-lanceolate, sometimes ovate or obovate, apex acute or
acuminate, base narrow or rounded, margin sharply serrate;
petioles less than one-half inch, densely pubescent, with two
glands at or on the base of the leaf; upper surface bright
green, finely pubescent, lower surface paler, also pubescent
and with a prominent midrib and veins.

Flowers of medium size, appearing before the leaves; borne in
sub-sessile, two to six-flowered umbels; calyx-tube obconic,
smooth, its lobes triangular, pubescent on the outer and
velvety on the inner surface; petals white, obovate, clawed;
pedicels slender, smooth, three-quarters inch long.

Fruit ripening in mid-summer; over one-half inch in length,
oblong, dark purple with a heavy bloom; stone ovoid or oval,
flattened, nearly one-half inch long, pointed at both ends
especially at the apex, and crested on one edge.

_Prunus mitis_ is a newly named species from Alabama, common in dry soils in the regions where it is found wild. The species has many characters in common with _Prunus umbellata_ to which it is so closely related that it is difficult to distinguish the two in herbarium specimens. Although nothing is yet known of its horticultural possibilities the apparent relationship does not indicate much value in the plum for the cultivator.

=17.= =PRUNUS TARDA= Sargent

=1.= Sargent _Bot. Gaz._ =33=:108. 1902. =2.= Ibid. _Sil. N.
Am._ =13=:23, Pl. 632. 1902.

Tree from twenty to twenty-five feet in height; trunk tall,
eighteen or twenty inches in diameter; bark light brown,
reddish, thick, with flat ridges and plate-like scales;
branches spreading, forming an open symmetrical head;
branchlets slender, at first light green and tomentose becoming
glabrous, light brownish and lustrous, and the second year much
darker; lenticels small, dark, scattered.

Leaves oblong to obovate, apex acute and sharp-pointed, base
rounded or cuneate, margin finely serrate with incurved,
glandular teeth, in texture thick and firm; upper surface
glabrous, dark yellow-green, lower surface pubescent, pale
green; petioles stout, tomentose or pubescent, short,
eglandular or with two stalked, dark glands at the apex;
stipules acicular, often bright red, small.

Flowers three-quarters inch across, appearing before and with
the leaves; borne in two or three-flowered umbels, on slender,
glabrous pedicels; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, hairy above,
the lobes acute, entire, villose on the outer, tomentose on the
inner surface; petals oblong-obovate with a short claw at the
base; filaments and pistils glabrous.

Fruit maturing very late; short-oblong to sub-globose,
one-third to one-half inch in length, red, yellow, purple,
black or blue; skin tough and thick; flesh thick and acid;
stone adhering to the flesh, ovoid, more or less compressed,
very rugose, ridged on the ventral and grooved on the dorsal
suture, acute at the apex, rounded at the base.

_Prunus tarda_, locally known as the Sloe, as are many other plums, was named from specimens collected in 1901 near Marshall, Texas, by Sargent and others. Sargent, to whom is due what field knowledge we have of the plant, gives its range from where found in Texas to western Louisiana and southern Arkansas. He says that it resembles and is often confounded with _Prunus umbellata_ but may be distinguished from it by its bark, which differs from that of any other American plum tree, being more like that of the chinquapin chestnut with which it grows; by the pubescence on the leaves, not usually found on those of _Prunus umbellata_; and by its variously colored fruit which ripens much later than that of other plums in the region. From what has been published in regard to the species one gathers little in regard to its horticultural possibilities though the statements that it bears great quantities of fruit and is used locally for culinary purposes indicate that it may have some value under cultivation.

=18.= =PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA= Marshall

=1.= Marshall _Arb. Am._ 111. 1785. =2.= Torrey and Gray _Fl.
N. Am._ =1=:407. 1840. =3.= Loudon _Arb. Fr. Brit._ =2=:705.
1844. =4.= Sargent _10th Cen. U. S._ =9=:66. 1883. =5.= Watson
and Coulter _Gray’s Man._ Ed. =6=:152. 1889 (in part). =6.=
Gray _For. Trees N. A._ 47, Pl. 1891. =7.= Sargent _Sil. N.
Am._ =4=:25, Pl. 152. 1892. =8.= Mohr _Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb._
=6=:551. 1901.

_P. chicasa._ =9.= Michaux[132] _Fl. Bor. Am._ =1=:284. 1803.
=10.= Nuttall _Gen. N. Am. Pl._ =1=:302. 1818. =11.= Elliott
_Sk. Bot. S. C. and Ga._ =1=:542. 1821. =12.= Hall _Pl. Texas_
9. 1873. =13.= Ridgway _Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus._ 65. 1882. =14.=
Chapman _Fl. Sou. U. S._ 131. 1897.

Plant seldom becoming a true tree, usually, however, forming a
small but distinct trunk with a twiggy, bushy top; bark thin,
dark reddish-brown, slightly furrowed or roughened, scaly;
branches slender, usually zigzag with long, thin thorns or
spine-like branchlets; branchlets slender, zigzag, glabrous,
glossy, bright red; lenticels few, scattered, yellowish, raised.

Winter-buds small, obtuse, free, brownish; leaves folded
upward, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, pointed at both ends,
thin, membranaceous, margins closely and finely serrate with
minute teeth, tipped with glands; upper surface glabrous,
lustrous, bright green, lower surface glabrous or pubescent
in the axils of the veins, dull, two-thirds inch wide and
from one to two inches long; petioles one-half inch long,
slender, glabrous or tomentose, bright red with two red glands
near or on the base of the leaf; stipules one-half inch long,
narrow-lobed, serrate with gland-tipped teeth.

Flowers appearing with or before the leaves, small, less than
one-half inch across, very numerous; umbels sub-sessile, two to
four-flowered, from lateral spurs or buds; pedicels glabrous,
slender, one-half inch in length; calyx-tube campanulate,
glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, glabrous outside, margins
ciliate, inner surface pubescent, reflexed; petals creamy in
the bud, obovate, apex rounded, narrowing into a claw at the
base; filaments and pistils glabrous, the latter shorter than
the stamens.

Fruit ripening early; spherical or ovoid, three-quarters inch
in diameter, bright red, sometimes yellow, glossy, with little
or no bloom; dots numerous, very conspicuous; skin thin;
flesh tender, juicy, yellow, subacid; quality rather poor;
stone small, clinging, ovoid, turgid, slightly roughened,
cherry-like, edges rounded, the dorsal one grooved.

The original home of _Prunus angustifolia_ is not known. The inference is left in most of the botanies that the species is not indigenous in the region east of the Mississippi, but that it was brought by the aborigines from the southwestern section of the Mississippi Valley or possibly the southern Rocky Mountains or Mexico. The chief reason for the belief that it does not belong where it now grows is the fact that it is usually found near human habitations and on the margins of fields and as it was known to have been cultivated by the Indians,[133] it is supposed to have escaped from their semi-cultivated plantations. Bailey[134] dissents from the current view, holding that the plant behaves like a true native in regions where he has known it, Maryland in particular. It seems to the writer that Bartram’s supposition, given in the foot-note below, has been followed too closely. A careful study of recent botanical works indicates that the species is indigenous to the southeastern United States.

Whatever the original habitat may have been it is now found in the wild state from southern Delaware to Florida and westward to the Panhandle of Texas and southern Oklahoma. It is usually found on rich soils but is found as well in worn-out fields and pastures, most often in thickets of small trees or thorny shrubs or scraggly bushes, producing under the latter conditions a small fruit so like cherries as to give it the name in some localities “Mountain Cherry” (Maryland), and in others “Wild Cherry” (Louisiana).

There has been much confusion in regard to _Prunus angustifolia_. The older botanists very generally mistook this species for Michaux’s _Prunus chicasa_ which, as stated in the foot-note on page 82, is almost certainly not the plum under discussion. Practically all horticulturists ascribe to _Prunus angustifolia_ a great number of cultivated varieties which cannot by any possibility belong here; indeed, it is doubtful if the species is cultivated at all other than very locally, and still more doubtful as to whether, as compared with other native plums, it is worth growing. In spite of this confusion the species is one of the most distinct of plums, and its characters are comparatively constant throughout the range. A careful reading of Humphrey Marshall’s description of _Prunus angustifolia_ by subsequent botanists might have helped to keep this plum in its place. Marshall wrote of it:

“Prunus angustifolia. Chicasaw Plumb. This is scarcely of so large a growth as the former [_P. americana_], but rising with a stiff, shrubby stalk, dividing into many branches, which are garnished with smooth, lance-shaped leaves, much smaller and narrower than the first kind [_P. americana_], a little waved on their edges, marked with very fine, slight, coloured serratures, and of an equal shining green colour, on both sides. The blossoms generally come out very thick and are succeeded by oval, or often somewhat egg-shaped fruit, with a very thin skin, and soft, sweet pulp. There are varieties of this with yellow and crimson coloured fruit. These being natives of the Southern states, are somewhat impatient of much cold.”

The tree-characters given by Marshall are hardly those of the plum under cultivation which we have been calling _Prunus angustifolia_, and his statement that the species is “impatient of much cold” at once separates the cultivated “Angustifolias” from the true species. We shall contrast the tree-characters of the two groups of plums in the discussion of _Prunus munsoniana_. Of the hardiness of the two it may be said that the cultivated varieties which we have placed in the last named species are for the most part hardy as far north as Burlington, Vermont, while the true _Prunus angustifolia_ cannot be grown to fruiting as far north as Geneva, New York. Its behavior, too, on the northern limit of its range, and the fact that it did not follow the aborigines northward as it seems to have followed them from place to place within its range, show that _Prunus angustifolia_ belongs in the southern states.

This plum was well known by the early colonists of Virginia and southward. John Smith in Virginia, in 1607-9, and Strachey, writing a few years later, saw “cherries much like a damoizm, but for their taste and cullour we called them cherries.” Beverly in his _History of Virginia_, written in 1822, speaks of two sorts of plums, “the black and the Murrey Plum, both of which are small and have much the same relish with the Damasine”; the latter was probably the Angustifolia. Lawson in his _History of Carolina_ speaks of several plums,[135] one of which, the Indian plum, must have been the fruit of the present discussion. Bruce[136] quotes a letter from William Fitzhugh, written in 1686, in which the latter speaks of the “Indian Cherry,” meaning of course, this plum; for it still passes under the same name.

Of the horticultural possibilities of _Prunus angustifolia_, little can be said from this Station as the trees cannot be grown here. But since the species has been so long known, and is so near at hand to fruit-growers, without more of its offspring coming under cultivation, it is not likely that it may be counted upon to bring forth much in the future for the orchard. Such trees and fruits of this species as the writer has seen are not at all promising for the cultivator.

=PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA WATSONI= (Sargent) Waugh[137]

=1.= Waugh _Vt. Sta. An. Rpt._ =12=:239. 1899. =2.= Bailey
_Cyc. Am. Hort._ 1450 fig. 1901.

_P. watsoni._ =3.= Sargent _Gar. and For._ =7=:134, fig. 1894.
=4.= Waugh _Bot. Gaz._ =26=:53. 1898. =5.= Bailey _Ev. Nat.
Fr._ 218. 1898.

Shrub four to ten feet high; branches slender, short-jointed,
zigzag, reddish-brown; branchlets at first bright red and
lustrous, later becoming brownish-red or sometimes ashy-gray;
lenticels few and light-colored; leaves small, ovate, apex
acute, base rounded or cuneate, margins finely crenulate; upper
surface glabrous, shining, lower surface paler, glabrous;
petioles reddish, one-half inch in length, biglandular at the
apex.

Flowers in fascicles of two to four, borne with or before the
leaves and in great abundance; calyx cup-shaped, the lobes
acute, eglandular, ciliate on the margins, pubescent on the
inner surface; petals white, obovate, contracted into a claw at
the base; filaments glabrous, anthers reddish, style slender,
exserted; pedicels one-quarter inch long.

Fruit two-thirds inch in diameter, globose, sometimes oblong,
orange-red, bloomless, handsome; skin thin, rather tender;
flesh yellow, juicy, tender, pleasant flavor; of comparatively
high quality; stone somewhat turgid, compressed at the apex,
thick-walled, rounded on the ventral and sometimes on the
dorsal suture.

_Prunus angustifolia watsoni_ is the Sand plum of the plains, being an inhabitant of southern and southeastern Nebraska and central and western Kansas and possibly passing into western Oklahoma. It is usually found along the banks of streams and rivers where it often forms shrubby thickets. The wild plums are held in high esteem for dessert and culinary purposes, becoming a commercial product in parts of the region in which they grow, and are occasionally transplanted to the garden or orchard. From such transplantings a half dozen varieties have arisen. The productiveness, hardiness to heat and cold and the size and quality of the fruits should attract plum-growers in the region of its habitat and experimenters elsewhere as well. Waugh[138] gives the following interesting sketch of the use to which this plum has been put in Kansas:

“Early settlers in Kansas, before their own orchard plantings
came into bearing, used to find the sand plums well worth their
attention. In July and August everybody for fifty miles back
from the Arkansas sand hills used to flock thither to pick, and
it was an improvident or an unlucky family which came off with
less than four or five bushels to can for winter. Whole wagon
loads of fruit were often secured, and were sometimes offered
for sale in neighboring towns.

“The fruit gathered from the wild trees was of remarkably fine
quality, considering the conditions under which it grew. The
plums were quite uniformly large—I would say from memory that
they often reached three-fourths of an inch to an inch in
diameter. They were thin-skinned and of good flavor, not having
the unpleasant astringency of the wild Americana plums, which
were also sometimes gathered. They were excellent for canning
and made the finest of jelly.

“Naturally, the settlers who went every year to the sand hills
for plums brought back trees to plant in the gardens they were
opening. Almost every farm within the range mentioned above
had a few or many of the dwarf trees growing. Some of these
were fruitful and worth their room, but most of them have now
died out, or are neglected and forgotten. This is because
people have paid no attention to their selection, propagation
and cultivation. Further than this, however, the sand plum has
often failed signally to come up to its record when transferred
to cultivation. It seems not to adapt itself readily to a wide
diversity of soils and conditions.”

The sub-species is easily mistaken for the species; in herbarium specimens it is almost impossible to distinguish between them, but in general the Sand plum differs from Angustifolia in its dwarfer habit, shorter-jointed, zigzag, ashy-gray branches, smaller but thicker leaves, larger, thicker skinned and better flavored fruit which ripens later, and in a smaller and somewhat differently marked stone. In distinguishing the two groups some allowance must be made for the adaptability of plums to different environments.

=PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA VARIANS= Wight and Hedrick