1920] SARGENT. NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN TREES. VH 115 



treatment as species. In all the forms the leaves are oval, oblong or obo- 

 vate, abruptly pointed, sharply sometimes doubly serrate with slender 

 spreading teeth, and green or pale on the lower surface. The flowers and 

 the fruits of all the forms vary considerably in size, and in the west the 

 fruit is often loss astringent and is usually darker in color at maturity than 

 in the east. If the different forms are considered varieties they may be 

 arranged as follows: 



Prunus virginiana L. Leaves cuneate or rounded or rarely slightly 

 cordate at base, pale or green on the lower surface, glabrous or furnished 

 below with axillary tufts of short hairs, and very rarely villose on the lower 

 side of the midrib. Fruit red at first when fully grown, becoming at ma- 

 turity bright red, dark crimson or nearly black, more or less astringent at 

 maturity; in one form (var. leucocarpa S. Wats.) bright canary yellow. 



Usually a small or large shrub; occasionally truly arborescent, espe- 

 cially the yellow-fruited variety, and from six to eight meters high. 



The typical Prunus virginiana is distributed from Newfoundland to 

 Labrador and the shores of Hudson Bay, and southward to the valley of 

 the Potomac River, to Buncombe and Tridell Counties, North £!arolina 

 (Cerasus virginiana ^ humilior Michx.), and to northern Kentucky, and 

 westward to Saskatchewan, and in the United States to eastern North 

 Dakota, eastern Nebraska, northeastern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, 



Prunus virginiana var. demissa Torr. This most distinct of the varieties 

 of the Choke Cherry was discovered by Nuttall in western Oregon and was 

 called by him Cerasus demissa. The leaves of this tree, which are usually 

 cordate at the base and covered below with pale pubescence, certainly ap- 

 pear distinct from those of the eastern plant, but trees with leaves cuneate 

 or rounded at base are also common in the Pacific coast region, leaves with 

 a cordate and with a cuneate base often occurring on the same branch, and 

 there is nothing but the pubescence of their lower surface by which this 

 western tree can be distinguished from the eastern tree. Prunus virginiana 

 var. demissay which I know in the Pacific States only in western Washing- 

 ton and Oregon, and in Kern and Napa Counties, California, is not con- 

 fined to the Pacific States if the pubescence on the lower surface of the 

 leaves can be depended on to distinguish it. Fendler's New Mexican speci- 

 men (No. 1847 in Herb. Gray) has cordate leaves pubescent below. On a 

 specimen collected by Professor Pammel near Ames, Iowa, in July, 1914, the 

 leaves are cuneate, rounded or slightly cordate at base and pubescent on the 

 lower surface. A specimen (No. 112) collected by V. H. Chase near Wady 

 Petra, Stark County, Illinois, has the broad leaves rounded or subcordate at 

 base of var. demissa although only slightly pubescent below; and the leaves 

 of two specimens (Nos. 6643 and 13058) collected by C. C. Deam in La- 

 porte County, Indiana, are rounded or cuneate at base and slightly pubes- 

 cent below, and with the Wady Petra specimen seem to connect the trees of 

 the Atlantic and Pacific coast regions. More distinct with its pubescent 

 branchlets is : 



