Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/640

 620 PLUM in the tribe prunece, of the order rosacece or rose family. The genus consists of trees or shrubs with simple, toothed leaves ; calyx with a bell-shaped tube and a fi ve-lobed limb ; pe- tals five, spreading ; stamens numerous, on the throat of the calyx ; ovary one, free, with two ovules ; fruit a fleshy drupe with a hard stone, with one seed (rarely two). This description applies to all the stone fruits. The group of species recognized as plums have white flow- ers, a smooth fruit, generally with a whitish bloom upon its surface, and a flat or flattish stone ; some of our native species are, so far as botanical characters go, very close to cher- ries. Of the half dozen native plums, only three are generally known. The beach plum, P. maritima, is found along the coast from Maine to the gulf of Mexico, and is everywhere a low straggling shrub from 2 to 5 ft. high, with stout branches; it is found growing in clumps in the blowing sands of the shore, and often extends inland some 20 m. The oval or ovate leaves are thickish, serrate, smooth above and downy underneath; the fruit is globular, from half an inch to an inch in diam- eter, crimson or purple, with a distinct bloom ; stone very turgid, acute at one edge and round- ed and minutely grooved upon the other. This is a variable species, forms of which have re- ceived different names ; at a distance from the sea the leaves are thinner and smoother and the fruit smaller; .the fruit is ripe in Sep- tember, and usually pleasant to the taste, but sometimes astringent; it is collected in con- siderable quantities for making preserves, and is sometimes to be found in the markets of seaboard cities. The wild yellow or red plum, P. Americana, also called the Canada plum, grows from Canada to Texas, and in some localities is very common. It is a showy tree 8 to 20 ft. high, with a round head ; its ovate leaves are conspicuously pointed, thin, very veiny, coarsely or doubly serrate and smooth when old; the fruit is globular or somewhat oval, one half to two thirds of an inch in diameter, yellow, orange, or red, and with scarcely any bloom ; the turgid stone somewhat acute on both edges ; the pulp juicy and pleasant, but the skin very tough and acerb. The tree is sometimes seen in cultiva- tion, when the fruit is larger and the stone flatter with broader margins. The seeds of this species are used by nurserymen to raise stocks upon which to graft the finer kinds of cultivated plums. The Chickasaw plum, P. Chicago,, is probably indigenous only in the southwestern states, but has become natural- j ized in various localities at the east and north ; it is said to have been introduced into the southern Atlantic states by the Indians, and it has been more or less cultivated since the country was first settled. The tree is from 6 to 12 ft. high, less thorny than the preceding, and has long and narrow acute leaves with very fine serratures ; the globular fruit is one half to two thirds of an inch in diameter, red, and almost without bloom ; the stone is ovoid, nearly as thick as wide, without any margin, but having both edges rounded and one of them minutely grooved; the skin of the fruit is thin and the flavor pleasant. This species is vari- able in both the wild and cultivated state; owing to the difficulty of cultivating the vari- eties of the European plum, on account of the attacks of the curculio, much attention has been given of late years to the improved vari- eties of the Chickasaw, and several named sorts are offered by nurserymen ; among these the wild goose, said to have been raised from a stone found in the crop of a wild goose, is the most prominent, and there are others for which great superiority is claimed. The Euro- pean plum has its origin surrounded by the same obscurity that attends other cultivated fruits ; it has been attributed to prunus domes- tica, but probably this and the bullace plum (P. insititia) are forms produced by long cul- tivation from the sloe or blackthorn (P. spi- nosa), a common tree or shrub in the old world, and sparingly introduced here. It is a much-branched, and in its wild state very thorny shrub, bearing small, globular, black, and astringent fruit. The finer kinds of gar- den plums are found to vary greatly from each other in the size of foliage, earlier or later blossoming, size and shape of the fruits, and in the smoothness or downiness as well as vigor of their young shoots. A large number of choice sorts have originated in the United States, and while many are larger and more showy, none are superior to the green gage, the best of all plums. Those known as the Lombard, red gage, golden drop, &c., with all the damsons, bear fruit well in sandy soils; Green Gage Plum. while the Smith's Orleans, Washington, Du- ane's purple, &c., seem suited to a northern climate ; and the imperial gage, Coe's golden drop, and Huling's superb are better suited to