Tas. 7420. 
PERAPHYLLUM Rramostssimum. 
Native of Western North America. 
Nat. Ord. Rosacra.—Tribe Pome. 
Genus Perarnyiium, Nutt.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen, Plant. vol. i. p. 628 (sub 
Amelanchier.) 
PERAPHYLLUM ramosissimum ; frutex fruticulusve ramosus rigidus, foliis coria- 
ceis anguste oblanceolatis acutis in petiolum brevem angustatis integer- 
rimis vel apicem versus denticulatis sparse sericeo-pubescentibus, floribus 
in corymbos paucifloros subsessiles erectos dispositis, pedicellis crassius- 
culis 2-bracteolatis, calycis tubo turbinato lobis lanceolatis, petalis 
orbicularibus patentibus roseis, staminibus petalis mquilongis, stylis 
elongatis tomentosis, baccis globosis. 
P. ramosissimum, Nutt. in Torr. & Gr. Fl. N. Am. vol. i. p. 474. Walp. Rep. 
vol. v. p. 660. Wenzig.in Linnea, vol. xxxviii. (1856), p- 115. Brandegee. 
Fil. 8. W. Colorado, p. 236. S. Wats. Bot. Calif. vol. ii. p. 445. Coulter, 
Man, Rocky Mt. Bot. p. 89. 
A genus ofa single species, so closely allied to Amelan- 
chier, that it was reduced to the latter in the “ Genera 
Plantarum,” because the character taken from the fruit 
upon which it was founded, and which had been incor- 
rectly described, did not hold good. This reduction has 
not been accepted by American botanists, and a better 
knowledge of the habit of the plant affords ample 
characters for the retention of the genus. In Amelanchier 
the leaves are broad, membranous and serrate, the flowers 
are racemose, the calyx-tube short, and the petals oblong. 
In Peraphyllum the leaves are narrowly oblanceolate, 
flowers in subsessile corymbs, the calyx-tube cylindric, and 
petals orbicular. In both the fruit is globose, fleshy and 
edible. 
Peraphyllum ramosissimum seems to have a very inter- 
rupted distribution, being nowhere very common, but 
occupying a wide area, from the Blue Mountains in Oregon 
to 8.W. Colorado, Southern Utah, and California. It 
has been grown in the Arboretum of Kew for upwards of 
twenty years, where it forms a shrub about three feet 
high, but was never observed to flower till May, 1894. 
June Ist, 1895, | 
