A STUDY IN PLANT VARIATION 



253 



Form 



Bark 



Lenticels 



Buds 



Leaf Scars 



Leaf 



Flower 



2. Prutius maritima Var. coeruJea parva 

 (Small Blue Black) 

 Low spreading bush 3 to 6 feet high, branching irregular, 

 gnarled and stunted in its habit of growth. 



Old stem rather slender, elongated, rough, cracked into 

 thin dark gray plates which tend to persist. Young 

 branches smooth dark purplish brown with numerous 

 light gray flattened lenticels, and few spinescent branches. 

 Youngest twigs smooth, numerous, elongate, slender, 

 puberulous, epidermis silvery gray and when shed uncovers 

 a light reddish brown bark. 



Numerous, small, rather inconspicuous, irregularly dis- 

 tributed over the branches, rounded and elevated on the 

 youngest twigs, darker and more flattened on the younger 

 branches. 



Alternate, conical shaped, sharp pointed, brown to gray 

 covered with numerous triangular scales, puberulous along 

 the margins; covered with a silvery gray waxy coating 

 which is shed in early spring. 



Flower buds lateral, more precocious in early spring, chest- 

 nut brown, very abundantly scattered along the branches, 

 frequently compounded with a single leaf bud. 

 Leaf buds smaller, more pointed, dark gray and terminal 

 bursting after the bush is in full bloom. 



Crescent shaped with three small inconspicuous fibro- 

 vascular bundle scars. 



Ovate, alternate, 3.0 cms. wide 5.7 cms. long, petiole 1.0 

 cms. long and finely pubescent; acute, finely and sharply 

 serrate with small dark brown glandular tipped teeth; 

 rounded and biglandular at the base with two dark brown 

 stalked glands; pubescent only along the midrib on the 

 upper as well as the lower surface, blade glabrous; stipules 

 lobed, glandular-serrate, and very early deciduous. Thick 

 and firm at maturity, dark green above, paler below. 

 Appearing from May 1 to 15 slightly before the leaves, 14 

 to 18 mm. broad on pubescent pedicels 13 mm. in length, 

 usually in 3 or 4 flowered umbels, sepals ovate, rounded 

 at the apex, pinkish along the margins, calyx tube cam- 

 panulate 2 mm. deep, glandular on the inner surface, 



