236 PENNYPACKER— ON THE BEACH PLUM 



Sargent states (Silva of North America, 4(1892), p. 28): — "There is 

 preserved in the Herbarium of Columbia College a specimen of a Prunus 

 collected in Alabama many years ago by Mr. S. B. Buckley, and referred 

 by Torreyand Gray (30 v. 1.408) to their variety 2. of Primus maritima, 

 and in the same collection a specimen of what is described as 'a small 

 tree 10-15 feet high; fruit oval, small, blue, glaucous, very austere to 

 the taste,' and which was seen many years ago in Lincoln County, N.C. 

 by Mr. M. A. Curtis, who mentions it in his report of the trees of that 

 state (Rep. Geol. Sur. N. C. 1860, 3, 56). It is possible, as Professor 

 Britton is inclined to believe, that these specimens represent a southern 

 form of Prunus Alleghaniensis; but they are without flowers, and hardly 

 suffice to justify the extension of the range of the species of which no 

 other trace has been found in the now well explored region of the southern 

 Alleghany Mountains." 



In a catalogue of the plants of Louisiana pubHshed in 1849, Prunus 

 maritima is given as growing there, but Professor R. S. Cocks, of Tulane 

 University, who has made a study of the vegetation of that state, and, 

 together with Professor C. S. Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum, has 

 collected plums in all parts of it, writes that they have not come across 

 any specimen of Prunus maritima. While it may occur there, yet he 

 has no good evidence that it does. 



My interest in writing to Professor Cocks came from a specimen 

 I saw preserved in the Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sc"ences 

 of Philadelphia, and collected by Dr. Lincecum about 50 years ago, 

 along the sandy shores of Texas. He called it the Post Oak Plum. On 

 the same sheet was a brief description from which I quote: — "Small 

 shrub 1-2 feet high, two varieties, found in patches on the poorest sandy 

 post ridges. " I presume he means on the sand dunes which are covered 

 with scattered growths of the Post Oak. As that habitat is very much 

 like the one in which I collected my specimens, and the few characters 

 which he gives seem to correspond with Prunus maritima of New Jersey, 

 it leads me to believe that it was a closely related species of Prunus, 

 modified by the different climatic conditions under which it grew. The 

 specimen is in poor condition containing very few leaves or flowers. 

 He further states: — "It blooms before the leaves and so numerous are 

 they that the patches of the shrub are perfectly white and may be seen 

 a great way. Fruit small and sour. Purple in color. Blooms in 

 February. " 



The specimens and material, which I have seen and examined and 

 from which the results of this paper were derived, range from Cape 



