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Other documents randomly have
different content
 Prunus is a most variable genus. This is indicated by the several
sub-genera, the large number of species and the various
arrangements of these groups by different authors. At their extremes
sub-genera and species are very distinct, but outside of the normal
types, and sometimes in several directions, there are often
outstanding forms which establish well-graded connections with
neighboring groups. For example, among the American plums there
are but few species between which and some other there are not
intermediate forms that make the two species difficult to distinguish
under some conditions. There is also a wide range of variation within
the species. The modifications within the species are oftentimes
such as to change greatly the aspect of the plant; the trees may be
dwarf or luxuriant, smooth or pubescent; may differ in branching
habit, in leaf-form, in size and color of the flowers, in the time of
opening of leaf and flower-buds, in color, shape, size, flesh, flavor
and time of ripening of fruit, in the stone and in all such characters as
climate and soil environment would be liable to modify.
This inherent variability is one of the strong assets of the genus as
a cultivated group of plants, for it allows not only a great number of
kinds of fruits and of species but a great number of varieties.
Besides, it gives to the genus great adaptiveness to cultural
environment, in accordance with climate, location, soil and the
handling of the trees. The cultivator is able to modify, too, the
characters of members of the genus to a high degree in the
production of new forms, but few, if any, groups of plants having
produced as many cultivated varieties as Prunus.
The genus Prunus is preeminent in horticulture, furnishing all of
the so-called stone-fruits, fruits which for variety, delicious flavor and
beauty of appearance, probably surpass those of any other genus,
and which, fresh or dried, are most valuable human foods. The
seeds of one of the fruits belonging to Prunus, the almond, are
commercially important, both for direct consumption and for the oil
which is pressed from them; in India a similar oil is obtained from the
seeds of peaches and apricots, while in Europe an oil from the seeds
of the Mahaleb cherry is used in making perfumes. Various cordials
are made from the fruits of the several species, as kirschwasser and
maraschino from cherries, zwetschenwasser and raki from plums,
and peach brandy from the peach; while fruits and seeds of the
several species are soaked in spirits for food, drink and medicinal
purposes. The bitter astringent bark and leaves are more or less
used in medicine as is also the gum secreted from the trunks of
nearly all the species and which, known as cerisin, is used in various
trades. The wood of all of the arborescent species is more or less
valuable for lumber, for cabinet-making and other domestic
purposes.
Prunus is prolific also in ornamental plants, having in common to
recommend them, rapidity of growth, ease of culture, comparative
freedom from pests, and great adaptability to soils and climates. The
plants of this genus are valued as ornamentals both for their flowers
and for their foliage. Many cultivated forms of several of the species
have single or double flowers, or variegated, colored or otherwise
abnormal leaves, while the genus is enlivened by the evergreen
foliage of the cherry laurels. Nearly all of the plants of Prunus are
spring-flowering but most of them are attractive later on in the foliage
and many of them are very ornamental in fruit.

PLUMS.
Of all the stone-fruits plums furnish the greatest diversity of kinds.
Varieties to the number of two thousand, from fifteen species, are
now or have been under cultivation. These varieties give a greater
range of flavor, aroma, texture, color, form and size, the qualities
which gratify the senses and make fruits desirable, than any other of
our orchard fruits. The trees, too, are diverse in structure, some of
the plums being shrub-like plants with slender branches, while others
are true trees with stout trunks and sturdy branches; some species
have thin, delicate leaves and others coarse, heavy foliage. In
geographical distribution both the wild and the cultivated plum
encircle the globe in the North Temperate Zone, and the cultivated
varieties are common inhabitants of the southern temperate region,
the various plums being adapted to great differences in temperature,
moisture and soil in the two zones.
 The great variety of plums and the variability of the kinds,
seemingly plastic in all characters, the general distribution of the fruit
throughout the zone in which is carried on the greatest part of the
world’s agriculture, and the adaptation of the several species and the
many varieties, to topographical, soil and climatic changes, make
this fruit not only one of much present importance but also one of
great capacity for further development. Of the plums of the Old
World the Domesticas, Insititias and probably the Trifloras have been
cultivated for two thousand years or more, while the work of
domesticating the wild species of America was only begun in the
middle of the last century. There are about fifteen hundred varieties
of the Old World plums listed in this work, and since the New World
plums are quite as variable, as great a variety or greater, since there
are more species, may be expected in America.
An attempt is made in The Plums of New York to review the plum
flora of this continent, but the species considered fall far short of
being all of the promising indigenous plums; not only are there more
to be described, but it is probable that species here described will in
some cases be sub-divided. The development of the pomological
plum-wealth of North America is but begun. Not nearly as much has
been done to develop the possibilities of the European plums in
America as in the case of the other tree-fruits. Probably a greater
percentage of the varieties of Old World plums commonly cultivated
came from across the sea, than of the varieties of any other of the
orchard-fruits which have been introduced. Much remains to be done
in securing greater adaptability of foreign plums to American
conditions. Native and foreign plums are also being hybridized with
very great advantage to pomology.
The Plums of New York is written largely with the aim of furthering
the development of plums in America, the possibilities of which are
indicated in the preceding paragraph. With this end in view the first
task is to name and discuss briefly the characters of plums whereby
species and varieties are distinguished, with a statement, so far as
present knowledge permits, of the variability of the different
characters. It is absolutely essential that the plum-grower have
knowledge, especially if he aspires to improve the fruit by breeding,
of the characters of the plants with which he is to work. These are in
the main as follows:
All species and some horticultural varieties have more or less
characteristic trees. Making due allowance for environment—food,
moisture and light—many plum groups can be readily distinguished
by the general aspect of the plant. Of the gross characters of trees,
size is usually most characteristic. A species, for example, is either
shrubby or tree-like. Yet under varying environment, size of plant and
of the parts of the plant, are probably the first to change. Habit of
growth is nearly as important as size and varies but little under
changing conditions. A species or variety may be upright, spreading,
drooping or round-topped in growth; head open or dense; the tree
rapid or slow-growing. Hardiness is a very important diagnostic
character, plums being either hardy, half-hardy or tender. Both
species and varieties respond in high degree to the test of hardiness,
the range for varieties, of course, falling within that of the species.
Productiveness, regularity of bearing, susceptibility to diseases and
insects, and longevity of tree are all characters having value for
species and varieties and with the exception of the first named, are
little subject to variation.
The thickness, smoothness, color and manner of exfoliation of the
outer bark and the color of the inner bark have considerable value in
determining species but are little used in determining horticultural
groups. It is well recognized that all plums have lighter colored bark
in the South than in the North. The branches are very characteristic
in several species. The length, thickness and rigidity of the branch
and the length of its internodes should be considered, while the
direction of the branch, whether straight or zigzag, are very valuable
determining characters and relatively stable ones, seeming to
change for most part only through long ranges of climatic conditions.
So, too, the arming of a branch with spines or spurs and the
structure of such organs are important. The color, smoothness,
amount of pubescence, direction, length, thickness and the
appearance of the lenticels, the presence of excrescences on the
branchlets of the first and second year’s growth and the branching
angle, are all worthy of consideration though quite too much has
been made of these characters, especially of pubescence, in
determining species, for they are all extremely variable.

1. P. HORTULANA MINERI 2. P. AMERICANA 3. P.

CERASIFERA
4. P. DOMESTICA 5. P. INSITITIA 6. P. HORTULANA
 7. P. MUNSONIANA 8. P. NIGRA 9. P. TRIFLORA
The size, shape and color of leaf-buds and of their outer and inner
scales and the margins of the scales differ in different species.
Possibly the most evident, and therefore readiest means of
identifying species, at least, is by the leaves. It is true that leaves are
very variable but always within limits, and either individually or
collectively in giving the general aspect to a tree they are
characteristic. Modifications of leaves most often occur in very young
plants, those growing in bright sunshine or deep shade and on
sprouts or suckers, but none of these are usually sufficient to
mislead as to species. Leaf-size and leaf-form are the first
characters to be noted in determining a plum but these are closely
followed in value by leaf-color, leaf-surface, leaf-thickness and leaf-
margin. Leaf-size is variable, depending much upon the conditions
noted above but leaf-form varies but little in the several species. So,
too, the color of leaves is very constant throughout a species, for
both surfaces, though impossible to describe accurately in words
and very difficult to reproduce in color-printing. There is a marked
difference in autumnal tints not only of species but of varieties but
these are not very constant in any one location and must vary greatly
under different environments. The thickness of the leaves of the
several species is a distinctive character. Species of plums have
very different leaf-surfaces as regards reticulation, rugoseness,
pubescence and coriaceousness, all of these characters being quite
constant, though it is to be noted that roughness of leaves and
pubescence are increased by exposure to the sun and by the
influence of some soils. There is, indeed, considerable variation in
the pubescence of the leaves of all species of plums in different
parts of the country and probably too much has been made of
pubescence as a determining character.
The margins of leaves are very characteristic of species and
scarcely vary under normal conditions if the teeth at the middle of the
sides be taken rather than those toward the base or apex, these very
often being crowded, reduced or wanting. The presence of glands,
their position, size, shape and color, help to characterize several
species and seem to be fairly constant guides. Some species and a
great number of varieties have the distinguishing marks of gland-like
prickles tipping the serrations in the leaf-margins. Length, thickness,
rigidity and pubescence of petiole have some taxonomic value.
Stipules usually offer no distinguishing marks other than those
mentioned under leaves.
The blossoms of plums are very characteristic, giving in flowering
time a distinctive aspect to all species and distinguishing some
horticultural varieties. The flowers of all the species are borne in
clusters, differing in number of individuals, according to the species;
so, too, the flowers in the different species vary in size, color, in
length of their peduncles, and in pubescence, especially of the calyx.
Flower-characters are constant, taking them as a whole, yet there
are some variations that must be noted. One of the most marked of
these is in the time of appearance of the flowers; in the South they
appear before the leaves but in the North with the leaves. On the
grounds of this Station there are notable exceptions to the latter
statement, with varieties of species showing considerable variation in
this regard. There are some remarkable variations within species as
regards size and color of the corolla and glands and pubescence of
the calyx, depending upon the environment of the plant; but on the
whole these characters are very constant. The fragrance of the
flowers of plums varies from a delicate, agreeable odor to one that is
quite disagreeable in some species as in Americana; the odor seems
to be a constant character.
Of all structures of the plum the fruit is most variable, yet fruits are
sufficiently distinct and constant, especially within species, to make
their characters very valuable in classification. Species, whether wild
or cultivated, may be distinguished in greater or less degree by the
period of ripening of the fruits, though in this regard the cultivated
varieties of the several species vary greatly and in the wild state
trees of native plums in the same locality, even in the same clump,
may vary in ripening as much as from two to four weeks. Species are
distinguished by size, shape, color, flesh, flavor and pit among the
grosser characters of the structure and by amount of bloom, stem,
cavity, apex, suture and skin among the minor characters. The fruit is
usually the first part of the plant to respond to changed conditions.
 Characters derived from seed structures are generally accounted
of much value by botanists in determining species. Such is the case
with plums. This Station has a collection of stones of over three
hundred cultivated varieties of plums and some specimens of nearly
all the different species. The stones illustrated in the color-plates in
this book show that this structure is quite variable in size, shape, in
the ends, surfaces, grooves and ridges, even within a species;
nevertheless in describing the several hundred forms of plums for
The Plums of New York the stone has been quite as satisfactory, if
not the most satisfactory, of any of the organs of this plant for
distinguishing the various species and varieties.
The reproductive organs of plums afford several characters and
would seem to offer means of distinguishing botanical and
horticultural groups, but they are so variable in both cultivated and
wild plants as to be very misleading. Not only do these organs differ
very often in structure but also in ability to perform their functions.
Bailey[1] has called attention to the remarkable self-sterility of some
varieties of the native species of plums, due to the impotency of the
pollen upon flowers of the same variety. C. W. H. Heideman[2] made
some very interesting observations on what he considers distinct
forms of the flowers of the Americana plums, describing for this
species all of the six possible variations of flowers enumerated by
Darwin in his Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the Same
Species. Heideman thinks that other species of Prunus exhibit
similar variations. Waugh[3] made the pollination of plums a subject
of careful and extended study and found much variation in the pistils
of plants of the same species, insufficient pollen in some plants,
pollen impotent on the stigma of the same flower, and considerable
difference in the time of maturity of pollen and stigma in some plums,
especially the Americana plums. These variations, most important to
the plum-grower, are of more or less use in identifying plums.
After the discussion of the characters of plums we may pass to a
detailed description and discussion of the species of plums which
now contribute or may contribute cultivated forms to the pomology of
the country either for their fruits or as stocks upon which to grow
other plums. The following conspectus shows as well as may be the
relations of the species of plums to each other.

CONSPECTUS OF SPECIES OF PLUMS.

A. Flowers in clusters of 1 or 2. (Three in P.

triflora.) Old World plums.
B. Leaves drooping.
C. Shoots and pedicels pubescent.
D. Flowers mostly in twos.
E. Fruits large, more than 1 inch in
diameter, variable in shape,
often compressed; tree large;
stamens about 30. 1. P. domestica.
E.E. Fruit small, less than 1 inch in
diameter, uniformly oval or
ovoid; stamens about 25; tree
small, compact. 2. P. insititia.
D.D. Flowers mostly single.
E. Leaves small, less than 2
inches in length; sometimes a
tree; very thorny 3. P. spinosa.
E.E. Leaves large, more than 2½
inches in length; a shrub;
thorns few 4. P. curdica.
C.C. Shoots glabrous or soon
becoming so, pedicels glabrous.
D. Pedicels shorter than the calyx-
cup; leaves glabrous or sparsely
pubescent on the under side
along the rib; flowers in pairs 5. P. cocomilia.
D.D. Pedicels more than twice as
long as the calyx-cup.
E. Flowers mostly single; leaves 6. P. cerasifera.
hairy along the midrib on the
 under side; petiole ⅕ as long
as the leaf-blade; a tree
E.E. Flowers in threes; leaves
glabrous, petiole shining, leaf-
margins finely and closely
serrate, teeth glandular-
pointed; stamens about 25 7. P. monticola.
E.E.E. Flowers in threes; leaves
glabrous, often shining, leaf-
margins finely and closely
serrate, teeth glandular-
pointed; stamens about 25 8. P. triflora.
B.B. Leaves upright, peach-like, glabrous,
veins very conspicuous, under side
barbate at axils of veins; separated
from all other plums by the leaf-
characters and by the large,
flattened, brick-red fruits 9. P. simonii.
A.A. Flowers in clusters of 3 or more, rarely
2. American plums.
B. Plants trees. (P. angustifolia rarely a
tree.)
C. Leaves broad, mostly ovate or
obovate.
D. Leaves long-ovate or long-
obovate.
E. Flowers white.
F. Leaf-serrations glandless,
acute; petiole usually
glandless; calyx-lobes
entire, glabrous on the
outer, pubescent on the
inner surface; stamens
about 30; stone turgid,
large, pointed at the apex 10. P. americana.
F.F. Leaf-serrations glandular, 11. P. hortulana.
 wavy-crenate; petioles
glandular; calyx-lobes
glandular-serrate,
pubescent on the inner
surface; stamens about 20;
stone turgid, small,
prolonged at the ends
E.E. Flowers fading to pink.
F. Leaf-serrations coarse,
rounded, glandular only
when young; petioles
biglandular; calyx-lobes
glandular-serrate, not
pubescent on the inner
surface; stamens about 30;
fruit red; bloom light; stone
flat 12. P. nigra.
F.F. Leaf-serrations fine, acute,
glandular-pointed; petioles
biglandular; calyx-lobes
entire, pubescent on the
outer, tomentose on the
inner surface; fruits dark
purple; bloom heavy; stone
turgid, acute at the ends 13. P. alleghaniensis.
D.D. Leaves round-ovate, obtusely,
sometimes doubly serrate;
petioles glandless; calyx-lobes
pubescent on both surfaces; fruit
dark red or purplish; stone
turgid, pointed at both ends 14. P. subcordata.
C.C. Leaves narrow, lanceolate-ovate.
D. Leaves flat.
E. Leaves glabrous; fruits globular, 15. P. umbellata.
usually purple at maturity but
sometimes red or orange-red;
 bloom thin; stone turgid,
cherry-like
E.E. Leaves pubescent.
F. Stone acute at both ends; fruit
purple. 16. P. mitis.
F.F. Stone rounded at base;
fruits variously colored 17. P. tarda.
D.D. Leaves more or less folded
upward.
E. Fruits small, ½ inch in diameter,
cherry-like; leaves lanceolate,
upper surface glabrous,
lustrous, lower surface
pubescent in axils of veins,
marginal teeth glandless;
petioles biglandular; stone
small, ovoid, turgid, cherry-
like; rarely a tree; tender in
New York 18. P. angustifolia.
E.E. Fruits large, an inch in
diameter, plum-like; leaves
lanceolate, peach-like, upper
surface glabrous, lower
surface pubescent along the
midrib; petioles with from 1 to
6 glands; stone compressed
and pointed at both ends;
usually a tree; hardy in New
York 19. P. munsoniana
B.B. Plants shrubs.
C. Fruits dark purple.
D. Leaves ovate, acute, finely
serrated; shoots becoming
glabrous; stones pointed at both
ends 20. P. maritima.
D.D. Leaves oval-orbicular, crenate- 21. P. gravesii.
 serrate; shoots usually
pubescent; stone pointed only at
the base
C.C. Fruits red or orange, sometimes
yellow but never deep purple.
D. Fruits large, 1 inch in diameter;
leaves oblong-ovate, long-
pointed, margin serrate with
incurved sometimes glandular
teeth, upper surface glabrous,
lower surface pilose; petiole with
1 or 2 glands; stone oval,
flattened 22. P. orthosepela.
D.D. Fruits small, ½ inch in diameter.
E. Leaves small, ovate-lanceolate
or oval, margins finely and
evenly serrate, upper surface
glabrous, lower surface soft
pubescent; petioles short and
stout; fruits variable in color,
mostly red; stone turgid,
pointed at both ends 23. P. gracilis.
E.E. Leaves oblong-ovate,
margins coarsely or doubly
serrate, glabrous above and
sparingly pubescent below;
petiole glandular; fruits cherry-
red 24. P. rivularis.

1. PRUNUS DOMESTICA Linnaeus

 PRUNUS DOMESTICA

1. Linnaeus Sp. Pl. 475. 1753. 2. Duhamel Traite des Arb. 2:93, 95, 96.
1768. 3. Seringe DC. Prodr. 2:533. 1825. 4. Hooker Brit. Fl. 220. 1830. 5.
London Arb. Fr. Brit. 1844. 6. De Candolle Or. Cult. Pl. 212. 1885. 7.
Schwarz Forst. Bot. 338. 1892. 8. Koch, W. Syn. Deut. und Schw. Fl.
1:727. 1892. 9. Dippel Handb. Laubh. 3:636. 1893. 10. Lucas Handb.
Obst. 429. 1893. 11. Waugh Bot. Gaz. 26:417-27. 1898. 12. Bailey Cyc.
Am. Hort. 1448. 1901. 13. Waugh Plum Cult. 14. 1901. 14. Schneider
Handb. Laubh. 1:630. 1906.
P. communis domestica. 15. Hudson Fl. Anglic. 212. 1778. 16. Bentham
Handb. Brit. Fl. 1:236. 1865.
P. œconomica (in part) and P. italica (in part). 17. Borkhausen Handb.
Forstb. 2:1401, 1409. 1803. 18. Koch, K. Dend. 1:94, 96. 1869. 19.
Koehne Deut. Dend. 316. 1893.

Tree reaching a height of 30 or 40 feet, vigorous, open-headed, round-

topped; trunk attaining a foot or more in diameter; bark thick, ashy-gray
with a tinge of red, nearly smooth or roughened with transverse lines;
branches upright or spreading, straight, stout and rigid, usually spineless;
branchlets usually pubescent, light red the first year, becoming much
darker or drab; lenticels small, raised, conspicuous, orange.
Winter-buds large, conical, pointed, pubescent, free or appressed;
leaves large, ovate or obovate, elliptical or oblong-elliptical, thick and firm
in texture; upper surface dull green, rugose, glabrous or nearly so, the
lower one paler with little or much tomentum, much reticulated; margins
coarsely and irregularly crenate or serrate, often doubly so, teeth usually
glandular; petioles a half-inch or more in length, stoutish, pubescent,
tinged with red; glands usually two, often lacking, sometimes several,
globose, greenish-yellow; stipules very small, less than a half-inch,
lanceolate, narrow, serrate, early caducous.
Flowers appearing after or sometimes with the leaves, showy, an inch or
more across, greenish-white to creamy-white; borne on lateral spurs or
sometimes from lateral buds on one-year-old wood, 1 or 2 from a bud in a
more or less fascicled umbel; pedicels a half-inch or more in length, stout,
green; calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous or pubescent, green; calyx-lobes
broadly oblong, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate,
usually reflexed; petals white or creamy in the bud, oval to obovate,
crenate, notched or entire, claw short and broad; stamens about 30, equal
to or shorter than the petals; anthers yellow, sometimes tinged with red;
pistils about as long as the stamens, glabrous or pubescent.
Fruit of various shapes, mostly globular or sulcate, often necked, blue,
red or yellow; stem a half-inch or more long, stout, pubescent; cavity
shallow and narrow; apex variable, usually rounded; suture prominent or
sometimes but a line or indistinct; skin variable; dots small, numerous,
inconspicuous; flesh yellowish, firm, meaty, sweet or acid and of many
flavors; stone free or clinging, large, oval, flattened, blunt, pointed or
 necked, slightly roughened or pitted; walls thick; one suture ridged—the
other grooved.

Beside the comparatively well-known groups of Domestica

varieties, there are in Europe, with an occasional representative in
America, especially in herbaria, numerous other groups either a part
of Prunus domestica or possibly, in a few cases at least, hybrids
between it and other species. European botanists place some of
these in distinct species or sub-species; but few, however, even of
the recent writers on the botany of the plum, agree at all closely as to
the disposition of these edible and ornamental plums which may be
doubtfully referred to Prunus domestica. With this disagreement
between the best European authorities where these plums have long
been known, where some of them have originated, and all may be
found in orchards, botanic gardens and herbaria, it does not seem
wise at this distance to attempt a discussion of such doubtful forms.
It is certain, however, that Borkhausen’s Prunus italica and Prunus
œconomica, as given in the synonymy, are but parts of Prunus
domestica, the first including the Reine Claude plums and the latter
the various prunes. So, too, a wild form named by Borkhausen,
Prunus sylvestris, is probably a part of Prunus domestica.
Bechstein[4] gave specific names to a number of plums which
Schneider[5] holds are all cultivated forms of Prunus domestica.
These names are not infrequently found in botanical and
pomological literature, to the great confusion of plum nomenclature.
The following are Bechstein’s species:—Prunus exigua, Prunus
rubella, Prunus lutea, Prunus oxycarpa, Prunus subrotunda and
Prunus vinaria.
The plum in which the world is chiefly interested is the Old World
Prunus domestica. The Domestica plums are not only the best
known of the cultivated plums, having been cultivated longest and
being most widely distributed, but they far surpass all other species,
both in the quality of the product and in the characters which make a
tree a desirable orchard plant. How much of this superiority is due to
the greater efforts of man in domesticating the species cannot be
said, for the natural history of this plum, whether wild or under
cultivation, is but poorly known. It is not even certain that these
plums constitute a distinct species, there being several hypotheses
as to the origin of the Domestica varieties. Three of these
suppositions must be considered.
Many botanists hold that what American pomologists call the
species is an assemblage of several botanical divisions. The early
botanists distributed these plums in botanical varieties of one
species. Thus Linnaeus, in 1753, divided Prunus domestica into
fourteen sub-species, and Seringe, in 1825, made eight divisions of
the species. Both of these men include in this species, among
others, plums which we now place in Prunus cerasifera, the Cherry
plums, and Prunus insititia, the Damsons and Bullaces. Nearly all
subsequent botanists who have not made two or more species of it
have recognized from two to several sub-divisions of Prunus
domestica. It is possible that what are called the Domestica plums
should be distributed among several botanical divisions. But it is
difficult to find any differential character sufficiently constant to
distinguish more than one species for the several hundred varieties
of these plums now under cultivation. Nor are there any cleavage
lines sufficiently distinct to indicate that the edible varieties of the one
species should be sub-grouped.
In coming to these conclusions the writer has studied about three
hundred varieties of Domestica plums growing on the grounds of this
Station and about half as many more growing in other parts of the
country, the whole number representing all of the various species
and sub-species which other workers have made. The differences
which have been most used to classify the varieties of Domestica in
several botanic divisions have to do chiefly with the fruit, as size,
shape, color and flavor, characters so modified by cultivation and
selection that they are artificial and transitory and of little value in
botanical classification. Moreover, the botanical groups which have
been founded on these characters are much more indistinct than
ordinarily in botany because of the merging at many points of one
group into another. This indistinctness is greatly increasing year by
year through the intercrossing of varieties. When the characters of
no value to man, and, therefore, little modified by cultivation, are
considered, it is scarcely possible logically to place Domestica plums
in more than one species or to further sub-divide the one species.
The botanists who have divided the Domestica plums into either
greater or lesser botanical groups do not define their divisions with
sufficient accuracy to make them clearly recognizable. Neither do
they give the habitats of the wild progenitors with sufficient certainty
to carry conviction that the groups were brought under cultivation
from separate ancestors. Also, the several botanists who hold to the
multiple species theory for the Domestica plums do not agree as to
the limits of the different groups and give to them very different
specific or variety names, showing that they have widely different
ideas as a basis for their classification.
A second theory is that Prunus domestica is derived from Prunus
spinosa and that Prunus insititia is an intermediate between the two.
[6] This hypothesis is based upon the supposition that when
Domestica plums run wild they revert to the Insititia or Spinosa form.
It is not difficult to test this theory. A study of the origin of the several
hundred Domestica and Insititia plums discussed in Chapters III and
IV of The Plums of New York does not show for any one of them a
tendency to reversion or evolution to other species; nor do the
descriptions indicate that there are many, if any, transitional forms.
During the two thousand years they have been cultivated in Europe
the Old World plums have been constant to type. Domestica
seedlings vary somewhat but they do not depart greatly from a well
marked type. Such very few striking departures as there seem to be
are more likely to have arisen through crossing with other species
than through reversion or evolution. This Station has grown many
pure seedlings or crosses of varieties of Domestica within the
species and has had opportunity of examining many more from other
parts of the State, and none of these show reversion to the other two
Old World species. Nor, as we shall see, is there much in what is
known of the history of these three species to lead to the belief that
the Domestica, Insititia and Spinosa plums constitute but one wild
species or have arisen from one.
It has been remarked that there are few, if any, transitional forms
between the Domestica and other European plums. It is a significant
fact that Prunus domestica can be hybridized with other species of
plums only with comparative difficulty, species of plums as a rule
hybridizing very freely. This is as true with the Insititia and Spinosa
as of other plums, there being few recorded hybrids of either of these
species with the one under discussion. Quite to the contrary the
varieties of the several pomological groups of Domestica plums
hybridize very freely. If all were of one species we should expect
many hybrids between the Domestica, Insititia and Spinosa plums.
We are now left with the third hypothesis, which is, as we have
indicated in a preceding paragraph, that the varieties of Domestica
plums belong to one species; or if they have come from more than
one species the wild forms have not been distinguished and must
have grown under much more nearly similar conditions than is the
case with Prunus domestica and any other species. Without
knowledge of more than one wild form, and in view of the
intercrossing of the varieties of these plums it seems best to
consider all as parts of one species, leaving to the pomologist the
division of the species into horticultural groups founded on the
characters which make the fruit valuable for cultivation.
Assuming, then, that the plums known in pomology as Domestica
plums belong to one species, the original habitat of the species may
be sought. In spite of the great number of varieties of plums now
grown in Europe and western Asia, and the importance of the fruit
both in the green and dried state, the history of the plums cannot be
traced with much certainty beyond two thousand years. Though
stones, without doubt those of the Insititia or Damson and the
Spinosa or Blackthorn plums, are found in the remains of the lake
dwellings in central Europe[7] the pits of Domestica plums have not
yet come to light. In the summer of 1909 the writer, in visiting historic
Pompeii, became interested in the illustrations of fruits in the
frescoes of the ancient buildings, but neither in the houses of the
ruined city nor in the frescoes in the museums in Naples could he
find plums, though several other fruits, as apples, pears, figs and
grapes were many times illustrated. An examination of the remains
of plants preserved in the museum at Naples taken from under the
ashes and pumice covering Pompeii gave the same results. No
stone-fruits were to be found, though if widely used these should
have been on sale in the markets of Pompeii at the time of the
destruction of the city, which occurred late in August,—the very time
of the year at which the examination was made and at which time
plums were everywhere for sale in Rome. This observation is but
another indication that plums were not well-known before the
beginning of Christianity, since Pompeii was destroyed in 79 A. D. In
Greek literature the references to plums are few before the Christian
era and these are more likely to some form of Insititia, as the
Damsons, rather than to the Domesticas.

Pliny gives the first clear account of Domestica plums and speaks of
them as if they had been but recently introduced. His account is as
follows:[8] “Next comes a vast number of varieties of the plum, the
particolored, the black, the white, the barley plum, so-called because it is
ripe at Barley harvest, and another of the same color as the last, but which
ripens later, and is of a larger size, generally known as the ‘Asinina,’ from
the little esteem in which it is held. There are the onychina, too, the cerina,
—more esteemed, and the purple plum; the Armenian, also an exotic from
foreign parts, the only one among the plums that recommends itself by its
smell. The plum tree grafted on the nut exhibits what we may call a piece
of impudence quite its own, for it produces a fruit that has all the
appearance of the parent stock, together with the juice of the adopted fruit;
in consequence of its being thus compounded of both, it is known by the
name of ‘nuci-pruna.’ Nut-prunes, as well as the peach, the wild plum and
the cerina, are often put in casks and so kept till the crop comes of the
following year. All the other varieties ripen with the greatest rapidity and
pass off just as quickly. More recently, in Baetica, they have begun to
introduce what they call ‘malina,’ or the fruit of the plum engrafted on the
apple tree, and ‘amygdalina,’ the fruit of the plum engrafted on the almond
tree, the kernel found in the stone of these last being that of the almond.
Indeed, there is no specimen in which two fruits have been more
ingeniously combined in one. Among the foreign trees we have already
spoken of the Damascene plum, so-called from Damascus, in Syria, but
introduced long since into Italy, though the stone of this plum is larger than
usual, and the flesh small in quantity. This plum will never dry so far as to
wrinkle; to effect that, it needs the sun of its own native country. The myxa,
too, may be mentioned as being the fellow countryman of the Damascene;
it has of late been introduced into Rome and has been grown engrafted
upon the sorb.”