Flowers expanding after the leaves, blooming later than any other cultivated plum, three-quarters inch across; odor disagreeable; clusters borne from lateral buds on one-year-old wood only, characterizing the species, the fruit-spurs making a very long growth, more like branches than the spurs of other species, two to six flowers from a bud; pedicels three-quarters inch long, very slender, glabrous; calyx-tube narrow, campanulate, glabrous, green; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, glandular-serrate, glands red, slightly pubescent on the inner side, erect; petals ovate, slightly crenate, dentate at the apex, tapering into long narrow claws; stamens about twenty in number, yellow; pistils glabrous, equal to or shorter than the stamens.
Fruit very late in ripening; globose, oval, an inch in diameter; color varying from shades of red to shades of yellow; bloom inconspicuous or lacking; dots numerous, small, conspicuous; suture very shallow or only a line; skin thick, tough, astringent; flesh golden-yellow, juicy, coarse, fibrous, firm, flavor mildly sweet, astringent at the pit, strongly aromatic; quality fair; stone clinging to the flesh, turgid, long-oval, small, prolonged at the ends, the surfaces rough and reticulated.
Prunus hortulana as established by Bailey, to quote a part of the original description, “includes a large class of plums represented by Golden Beauty, Cumberland, Garfield, Sucker State, Honey Drop, probably Wild Goose and others.” Unfortunately Bailey later added[117] a number of other plums to the group which the above varieties and some ten or fifteen others comprise, the additions in themselves constituting at least three somewhat distinct groups, and then to account for this omnibus species called it a “brood of natural hybrids.” Waugh supports Bailey’s conclusions[118] and divides the species into four groups of hybrids—the Miner group, the Wild Goose group and the Schley or Clifford group. These, Waugh says, “form an unbroken series from Prunus americana to Prunus angustifolia.” The fourth of Waugh’s groups, “comparatively distinct from the others, is made up of such varieties as Wayland, Moreman, Golden Beauty, Reed, Leptune, Kanawha and others.” These plums he designated as the “Wayland group.” This disposition of the plums under consideration leaves Prunus hortulana as the name of only a rather loosely related lot of cultivated varieties. It is probable that neither Bailey nor Waugh, had they seen the material now to be had, would have left the species as they did.
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
PRUNUS HORTULANA MINERI