1921] REHDER, NEW SPECIES, VARIETIES AND COMBINATIONS 23 



wild this peach generally assumes a low bush form of spreading habit; 

 when planted in gardens and attended to, it grows into a small tree, 

 reaching a height of 12 to 20 feet, with a smooth trunk of dark mahogany- 

 brown color. The leaves are always much smaller and more slender 

 than in cultivated varieties, while their color is much darker green. They 

 seem to be somewhat less subject to various diseases than the cultivated 

 sorts, and they are most prolific bearers, although the fruit is of very 

 little value, on account of its smallness and lack of flavor. In gardens 

 around Sianfu this wild peach is utilized as a stock for improved varieties 

 It is also grown as an ornamental; said to be literally covered in spring 

 with multitudes of shell-pink flowers. See also No. 2123a (S. P. I. No. 

 39428)." 



"40004. (No. 2143a. Kagoba (south of Ksiku, Kansu, China, October 

 3, 1914.) Wild peaches occurring as tall shrubs in loess cliffs at the 

 Tibetan frontier at altitudes of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. Save for some chil- 

 dren who eat these wild peaches, they are otherwise considered worthless 

 wild fruit. Local name Yeh t'ao, meaning "wild peach" and Mao t'ao, 

 meaning " hairy peach". 



Prunus mira Koehne in Sargent, PL Wilson, i. 272 (1912). — Description 

 adde: Flores praecoces, solitarii, subsessiles; calycis tubus rubescens, 

 basi vel interdum ad medium vel ultra perulis latis margine villosis ob- 

 tectus, late campanulatus, 4.5-5 mm. longus et circiter 5 mm. latus, 

 extus intusque glaber; sepala rubescentia, anguste ovalia, circiter 5 mm. 

 longa et 3 mm. lata, margine albo-villosula excepta utrinque glabra, 

 tubum subaequantia, demum reflexa; petala alba, suborbicularia, 10-13 

 mm. longa et lata, apice rotundata vel emarginata, basi in unguiculum 

 1 mm. longum subito contractum; stamina 45-50, inaequalia, 4-8 mm. 

 longa, longiora petalis circiter triente breviora, filamentis glabris, antheris 

 ovalibus flavis 1.5 mm. longis; ovarium dense villosum; stylus cum ovario 

 9-10 mm. longus, sepala subaequans, staminibus brevior, triente superiore 



excepto dense villosus. 



The flowers of this species were not known when Koehne described it 

 from a specimen collected by Wilson in western Szech'uan under No. 

 4205. From seed of this number plants have been raised; they, however, 

 did not prove hardy in this Arboretum, but have flowered since in other 

 gardens where plants had been sent from here. In 1917 a small flower- 

 ing branch was sent by Mr. L. Barron, Garden City, New York, and 

 this year we received through the Department of Agriculture from the 

 Plant Introduction Garden in Chico, Calif., good flowering material on 

 which the description given above is based. It flowered there on March 

 1st well before the leaves, while the flowering specimens from Garden 

 City was collected on May 15th with the young leaves developing, the 

 single flower was already loosing its petals and borne on a pedicel about 

 4 mm. long, but I suspect normally the species flowers before the leaf- 

 buds open. 



