22 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM (vol. hi 



China. Kansu: Kagoba, south of Hsiku, Oct. 3, 1914, F. N. 

 Meyer (No. 2142a, seed only); plants raised from this seed cultivated 

 under No. 40004 at the Plant Introduction Station at Chico, Calif. Speci- 

 mens examined: Chico, February 10, and August 11, 1921, C. C. Thomas. 

 Here belong also specimens collected at the same date from plants culti- 

 vated under No. 40001 and raised from seeds collected by F. N. Meyer 

 at Sianfu, Shensi, where it is cultivated and said to have come from near 

 Tzewu, south of Sianfu. 



This new species is most closely related to Prunus Persica Stokes 

 which differs chiefly in its more finely serrate leaves (with usually 5-10 

 teeth to 1 cm.; while in P. kansuensis there are usually 3-5 teeth to 1 cm.) 

 more abruptly contracted at base with usually two conspicuous glands 

 at the apex of the petiole, in the pubescent winter-buds, in the shorter 

 style, as long or usually shorter than the longest stamens, and in the 

 usually larger, pitted and deeply grooved stone with narrow and irregular 

 grooves, while in P. kansuensis the stone is not pitted and the grooves 

 are wider and shallower and fairly regular and parallel in the lower half 

 of the stone. The color of the flowers of the new Peach is shell-pink 

 according to Meyer, but in the cultivated specimens before me it is white 

 with only a slight trace of pink in the young bud. 



Prunus kansuensis shows such a close resemblance and affinity to P. 

 Persica that I would have referred it as a variety to that species, if it had 

 not been for the long style and the differently sculptured stone which is 

 not at all pitted and which has shallower more regular grooves. In P. 

 Persica and the related species the style is always shorter or at most as 

 long as the longest stamens. The stone in P. Persica, P. communis Ar- 

 cang. and P. Davidiana Franch. is deeply pitted and the grooves are 

 deep and narrow and very irregular, while in P. mira Koehne it is nearly 

 smooth, in P. tangutica Koehne the stone is grooved and not pitted but 

 this and allied species differ markedly in their spiny branches and much 

 smaller leaves. I find, however, the stone of Wilson's No. 611 from Fang 

 Ilsien in Hupeh only slightly pitted and that of Schneider's No. 3190 

 from Lichiang and Yunnan not pitted and very similar to the stone of 

 P. kansuensis, but in the leaves they agree with typical P. Persica to 

 which they have been referred; more complete material is needed to de- 

 cide if these forms should remain with P. Persica. 



As the collector's field notes to the two numbers on which this new 

 species is founded, give much additional information they may be re- 

 printed here from the Inventory of seeds and plants imported by the 

 Office of foreign seed and plant introduction (U. S. Dept. Agric). No. 

 42, 50 (1918): 



"40001. (No. 2139a. Sianfu, Shensi, China. August 30, 1914) Wild 

 peaches having larger fruits than the ordinary wild ones, said to come 

 from near Tzewu, to the south of Sianfu, but some also probably collected 

 from trees in gardens which were raised from wild seeds. When seen 



