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.
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