ROSE FAMILY 229 



solitary or somewhat fascicled, 5 to 6 lines broad, pediceled ; ovary densely pubes- 

 cent; fruit oblong-ovoid or elliptic-ovoid, sparingly or minutely puberulent, 4 to 

 6 lines long. 



Washes, valley flats and canon sides, 1500 to 3000 feet : ranges on west side of 

 the Colorado Desert. South to Lower California. Feb.-Mar. 



Note on the species name. — The original description of Prunus fremontii Wats. (Bot. Cal. 

 2:442) defines the Desert Apricot and cannot be applied to any other species of Prunus in Cali- 

 fornia. Moreover, the specimen first cited (Oriflamme Caiion, San Diego Co., Cleveland) is the 

 Desert Apricot, as well as the second cited specimen (Parry & Lemmon). That Fremont's own 

 specimen is of another species is immaterial. The diagnosis of a species is decisive ; the specific 

 name cannot run against it nor can a specimen. In framing international rules of nomenclature 

 botanists well understood that diagnoses, when published, have the character of permanence. 

 The identity of the species rests on the diagnosis. Diagnoses as published cannot be altered. 

 Modification, addition, subtraction can only be by subsequent publication, which nevertheless 

 forms no part of the original diagnosis. No international rules take account of specimens. Speci- 

 mens have not the same elements of identity or permanence as printed diagnoses. Specimens 

 may be lost, destroyed, and more especially mislabeled or mixed. But over and above this it is 

 clear, in this particular instance, that the original diagnosis of Prunus fremontii Wats, and the 

 two first-cited specimens apply clearly to the Desert Apricot. The attempt of S. C. Mason, there- 

 fore, to apply a new name (P. eriogyna) to this species, because Fremont's specimen is of an- 

 other species, runs counter to the international rules of nomenclature and to all botanical tradi- 

 tion. That Fremont did not collect Prunus fremontii is also immaterial. There are numberless 

 cases in which the specific part of the binomial has proven contradictory or unfitting, but such 

 reasons are not regarded as valid for changing the specific name. 



Locs. — Palm Canon, Eiverside Co., Jepson 1377 ; Box Canon, Mason Valley, San Diego Co., 

 Jepson 8660, 8659; Cuyamaca Mts., San Diego Co., Newlon; Mountain Springs grade, San Diego 

 Co., Jepson 11,807, 



Var. pilulata Jepson. Leaf-blades orbicular, more or less truncatish or subcordate at base, 5 

 to 8 lines long; fruit (immature) subglobose, a little flattened, a little broader than long, 4 

 lines long. — Foothills, west side of the Colorado Desert in San Diego Co.: Sentenae Valley; 

 Mountain Sprs. sta., ace. Peirson. 



Refs. — Prunus rREMONTU Wats. Bot. Cal. 2:442 (1880), type loc. Oriflamme Canon, San 

 Diego Co., Cleveland; Jepson, Man. 507 (1925). Amygdalus fremontii Abrams, Bull. N. Y. Bot. 

 Gard. 6:385 (1910). P. eriogyna Mason, Jour. Agr. Research 1:168, fig. 5 (1913). Var. pilu- 

 liATA Jepson, Man. 507 (1925), type loc. Wagon Wash near Sentenae Canon, San Diego Co., 

 Jepson 8769. 



6. P. andersonii Gray. Desert Peach. Spreading divaricately branched 

 deciduous shrub 2 to 6 feet high with very thorny branchlets; leaves fascicled, the 

 blades glabrous, oblong or oblanceolate, minutely serrulate, 4 to 10 lines long, nar- 

 rowed to a short petiolar base, mostly with several brownish veins; flowers solitary, 

 5 to 8 lines broad, on pedicels 11/2 to 4 lines long; fruits flattened-globose and a 

 little oblique, 6 to 7 lines long, covered with a close dark brown pubescence or 

 indument. 



Arid slopes and desert mesas, 3500 to 7500 feet : east side of the Sierra Nevada 

 from Modoc Co. to Inyo Co. Western Nevada. May. 



Locs.— Modoc. Co., L. S. Smith; Long Valley, Lassen Co., Jepson 7788; Leevining Canon, 

 Mono Co., Ottley 1081 ; White Mts., Purpus 5805 ; Nelson Range, Inyo Co., Hall ^ Chandler 7118. 

 Nevada: Miller Mt., Mineral Co., Shockley 216. 



Refs.— Prunus andersonii Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 7:337 (1868), type loc. foothills, Carson, 

 Nevada, C. L. Anderson; Jepson, Man. 507 (1925). Amygdalus andersonii Greene, Fl. Fr. 49 

 (1891). Emplectocladus andersonii Nels. & Ken. Muhl. 3 :139 (1908). 



7. P. fasciculata Gray. Desert Almoxd. Divaricately branched deciduous 

 shrub with gray bark and very thorny branchlets, 2 to 8 feet high; leaves fascicled, 

 minutely pubescent, the blades narrowly oblanceolate, entire or with 1 or 2 minute 

 teeth on each side, 3 to 8 (or 10) lines long, mostly with one brownish vein; flowers 

 more or less dioecious, solitary or fascicled on the short spurs, sessile or nearly so, 

 2 to 3 lines broad; fruit ovoid, acutish, light brown with a dense velvet coat of short 

 bristly hairs, 4 to 5 lines long; flesh thin. 



