Flowers white, small, appearing before the leaves; borne in sessile, several-flowered umbels; pedicels short, slender, soft-pubescent.
Fruit globose or oval, very small, not more than one-half inch in diameter, variable in color, mostly in shades of red; stone turgid, nearly orbicular, pointed at both ends.
Prunus gracilis is found in dry, sandy soils from southern Kansas and western Arkansas to central Texas. It grows most abundantly and thrives best in Oklahoma, a fact which leads Waugh to call it the “Oklahoma” plum. All who know the species agree that it is a near approach to Maritima in many of its characters. This plum is very variable and some of its forms seem not to have been well studied. As a fruit plant Gracilis is hardly known in cultivation though Torrey says it is cultivated in the region of its habitat under the name Prairie Cherry. The wild fruit is used more or less locally and is sometimes offered for sale in the markets of western towns. The quality is about the same as that of the wild Americanas and under cultivation would probably improve. The small size of plant and fruit are the most unpromising characters though the species is also much subject to black-knot.
24. PRUNUS RIVULARIS Scheele
1. Scheele Linnaea 21:594. 1848. 2. Gray Pl. Wright. 1:67. 1852. 3. Hall Pl. Texas. 9. 1873. 4. Coulter Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 2:101. 1891. 5. Waugh Bot. Gaz. 26:50-52. 1898. 6. Bailey Ev. Nat. Fr. 223. 1898.
Shrub three to seven feet high; branches angular, smooth, shining, ash-colored, rough; lenticels small, crowded; leaves oblong-ovate or sometimes ovate, rarely lanceolate, apex acute, margins coarsely or doubly serrate, glabrous above and sparingly pubescent below; petioles glandular, grooved, pubescent; flowers in lateral umbels, in pairs or several-flowered; fruit about one-half inch in diameter, oblong-oval, cherry-red; skin thick, smooth and tough, acid.
The preceding description is largely compiled from the authors given in the references, the writer having seen only herbarium specimens. The species is included here largely upon the authority of Professor C. S. Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum and W. F. Wight, who know the plant as described by Scheele in the field. Gray described the plant as “verging to Americana.” Bailey says “it evidently bears the same relation to Prunus americana that Prunus watsoni does to the Chickasaw plum.” Waugh is “convinced that Prunus rivularis Scheele is nothing more than one of the more distinct sub-divisions of the multiform hortulana group.”[144] T. V. Munson writes me that the Waylandi plums belong in this species. My own opinion is, from the herbarium specimens examined, from correspondence and conversation with those who have seen the plant in the field, that Scheele’s species is a good one and quite distinct from the species named by Bailey, Waugh and Munson as allied to it. It is to be looked for along the streams and bottom-lands in the neighborhood of San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas. The plum is locally known as the Creek plum and in common with other plums is gathered for home consumption. The species seems to offer but few possibilities for the fruit-grower.
CHAPTER II
PLUM CULTURE.
Ten states produced over 82 per ct. of the plum crop of the United States in 1899. The census of 1900 shows that in the preceding year the total crop in the country was 8,764,032 bushels of which California, Oregon, New York, Washington, Michigan, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and Kansas, named in order of yield, produced 7,429,248 bushels. All other states yielded 1,334,784 bushels. Of these ten states, three, California, Oregon and Washington, holding first, second and fourth places in production, use by far the greater parts of their crops for prunes. Four others, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas and Kansas, grow the native and Triflora varieties almost exclusively. New York with a crop of 313,668 bushels in 1899, Michigan with 213,682 bushels the same year and Ohio with 81,435 bushels, grew the main crop of Domesticas for the states in which plums are not made into prunes.