I. Prunus Americàna Marsh. Wild Yellow Or Red Plum

Fig. 2409

Prunus americana Marsh. Arb. Am. 111. 1785.

A shrub or small tree, maximum height about 350, and trunk diameter about 12'; branches more or less thorny; bark thick. Leaves ovate or obovate, acuminate, nearly or quite glabrous when mature, usually pubescent when young, sharply and often doubly serrate, with gland-tipped teeth, rounded at the base, slender-petioled; petioles usually glandless; flowers white, 8"-12" broad, appearing in lateral sessile umbels before the leaves; pedicels 5"-9" long; calyx-lobes pubescent within, entire; dnipe globose, red or yellow, 9"-12" in greatest diameter, the skin tough, bloom little or none, the stone somewhat flattened, its ventral edge acute or margined, the dorsal faintly grooved.

Connecticut to Montana, Florida, Texas and Colorado. A southwestern race has very pubescent leaves. April-May. Fruit ripe Aug.-Oct. Horse-, hog's- or goose-plum. Native plum. Plum-granite.

2. Prunus Nigra Ait. Canada Plum. Horse Plum

Fig. 2410

Prunus nigra Ait. Hort. Kew. 2: 165. 1789. Prunus mollis Torr. Fl. U. S. 1: 470. 1824.

A tree, 20°-30° high, the trunk sometimes 10' in diameter, the bark thin. Leaves oval, ovate or obovate, long-acuminate, pubescent when young, crenulate-serrate, narrowed, obtuse or subcordate at the base, 3-5' long; petioles stout, 1/2'-1' long, bearing 1 or 2 red glands near the blade; flowers in lateral umbels, expanding before the leaves, 1'-1 1/4' broad; pedicels 6"-10" long, slender, glabrous; calyx-lobes glandular-serrate, glabrous within, sometimes pubescent without; petals white, turning pink; drupe oval, 1'-1 1/3' long, yellow to orange-red, thick-skinned, bloom little or none, the flesh adherent to the oval compressed stone, which is sharply ridged on the ventral edge, somewhat grooved on the dorsal.

Newfoundland to Alberta, Massachusetts, Georgia and Wisconsin. Wood hard, reddish-brown; weight per cubic foot 43 lbs. Red or wild plum. Pomegranate. May. Fruit Aug.

3. Primus Hortulàna Bailey. Wild Goose Plum

Fig. 2411

P. hortulana Bailey, Gard. & For. 5: 90. 1892. Prunus hortulana Mineri Bailey, Bull. Cornell Agric. Exp. Sta. 38: 23. 1892.

A small tree, similar to the two preceding; branches spreading, bark thin. Leaves ovate-lanceolate to ovate or oblanceolate, long-acuminate, somewhat peach-like, closely glandular-serrate, glabrous, 4'-6' long; petioles not 1' long, usually bearing two glands near the blade; flowers few in the lateral umbels, expanding before the leaves; pedicels 5"-10" long; calyx-lobes glandular-serrate, pubescent without and within; drupe subglobose or short-oval, bright red, thin-skinned; stone swollen, not margined; bloom little or none.

Indiana to Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. Hog-plum. Apparently erroneously recorded from farther east, unless as an escape from cultivation. Garden wild plum. April-May.