26o Bulletin No. 70. 



or types. Of these, the best known is the common dwarf or 

 sand cherry of the East, Pnmus pumila;^ which grows chiefly 

 upon sandy and rocky shores from northern Maine to the District 

 of Cohimbia and northwestward to Lake of the Woods. It is 

 particularly common along the Great Lakes, where it often grows 

 'in drifting sand. The young plant is strictly erect, but as it be- 

 comes older the base or trunk becomes reclined and often covered 

 with sand ; but the young growth maintains its erect character. 

 The plant has long and narrow, sharply-toothed leaves and a 

 willow-like habit. 



This sand cherry is variable in its wild state, especially in its 

 fruit. As a rule, the fruit is small and very sour and scarcely 

 edible, but now and then one comes upon a bush which has fruit 

 of pleasant flavor and as large as small Early Richmond 

 cherries. The illustration, Fig. i, shows the ordinary type of 

 fruit of the sand cherry, natural size. The fruit is ordinarily 

 black, always without bloom, and in this latitude ripens late in 

 July and early in August. The fact that the plant grows in the 

 lightest of sand, suggests its use for poor or arid regions which 

 are present in most states and upon which few or no crops can be 

 grown with profit. 



This sand cherry was advertised in the Midway Plaisance at 

 the World's Fair last year by Martin Klein & Co., of Detroit. 

 The plant was said to have probably come from Japan, but it was 

 the ordinary Pninus piunila of our eastern states. The plant was 

 recommended chiefly, it seems, for some medicinal virtue which 

 was said to reside in its red roots, although its merits as a fruit 

 plant were not overlooked. 



Unfortunately, there are no named varieties of this sand cherry 



upon the market, and very little attention has been given to it by 



experimenters. It has less merit as a fruit plant than the next 



species, but it is nevertheless worth attempts at improvement. 



2. The Western Divarf Cherry. — The second species of dwarf 



* Prunus pumila, Linnseus, Mantissa, 75 (1767). 



Pricniis Susqiiehance, Willd. Enum. 519 (1S09). 



Prutius depresstty Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 332 (1814). 



Primus incana, Schweiaitz, Long's Exped. by Keating, ii. 387 (1824). 



See Bull. 38, pp. 62, 63. 



