28 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACEZ. 
dry ridges of the so-called “ barrens”? of Huntingdon County, where it occasionally assumes the habit of 
a tree, associated usually with the Wild Crab-apple, the Scarlet Haw, the Bear Oak, the Black Oak, the 
Pig-nut, and the Red Cedar, reaching its largest size on the limestone bluffs north of the Little Juniata 
River.” 
The wood of Prunus Alleghaniensis is heavy, hard, and close-grained, with many thin medullary 
rays; it is brown tinged with red, with thin pale sapwood composed of ten or twelve layers of annual 
growth; when absolutely dry the specific gravity is 0.7073, a cubic foot weighing 44.13 pounds. 
The fruit is collected in large quantities, and is made into excellent preserves, jellies, and jams, 
which have a considerable local consumption. 
Prunus Alleghaniensis was first distinguished by Mr. J. R. Lowrie 
° of Warriorsmark, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1859; and the first account of it was published by Professor Thomas C. Porter*im 1877. It 
was introduced into the gardens of Lafayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1885, by Professor 
Porter, through whose agency it has now become an inhabitant of the Arnold Arboretum. 
As an ornamental shrub or small tree, Prunus Alleghaniensis deserves a place in the garden for 
its abundant flowers and handsome fruit; this also possesses considerable culinary value, and, like that 
of other Plum-trees, will probably be improved by selection and cultivation. 
1 The name “barrens” is given to a plateau some twelve hun- 
dred feet above tide-water. 
lies north of the Little Juniata River between Tussey’s Mountain on 
the east and Bald Eagle Mountain on the west. 
and underlaid by limestone which crops out in many places, with 
It is ten or twelve miles broad and 
The soil is sandy 
many extensive beds of iron ore in the troughs of the limestone. 
The soil, however, is by no means sterile, and when properly culti- 
vated yields good crops. 
2 There is preserved in the Herbarium of Columbia College a 
specimen of a Prunus collected in Alabama many years ago by Mr. 
S. B. Buckley, and referred by Torrey & Gray (FU. N. Am. i. 408) 
to their var. 8. of Prunus maritima, and, in the same collection, a 
specimen of what is described as ‘‘a small tree ten to fifteen feet 
high ; fruit oval, small, blue, glaucous, very austere to the taste,” 
and. which was seen many years ago in Lincoln County, North Caro- 
lina, by Mr. M. A. Curtis, who mentions it in his report of the trees 
of that state (Rep. Geolog. Surv. N. Car. 1860, iii. 56). It is possible, 
as Professor Britton is inclined to believe, that these specimens 
represent a southern form of Prunus Alleghaniensis ; but they are 
without flowers, and hardly suffice to justify the extension of the 
range of the species, of which no other trace has been found in the 
now well explored region of the southern Alleghany Mountains. 
8 Jonathan Roberts Lowrie (1825-1885) ; a native of Butler, 
Pennsylvania, and the son of Walter Lowrie, a senator of the 
is said to have amounted to a passion, led him to establish a large 
and interesting arboretum in his park at Warriorsmark, where 
many noble trees bear witness to his knowledge and skill. 
4 Thomas Conrad Porter, D. D., LL. D., was born at Alexandria, 
Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1822, and graduated 
from Lafayette College in 1840, and from Princeton Theological 
Seminary in 1843. His father was a Presbyterian elder of more 
than fifty years standing, a man of influence and note, whose 
father came to Pennsylvania from Donachedy, Ireland, late in the 
last century. His maternal great-grandfather, John Conrad Bucher, 
of a German-Swiss family from the canton of Schaffhausen and a 
minister of the Reformed Church, emigrated to America in 1755 
and died in 1780, the pastor of a congregation at Lebanon, Penn- 
ion-church in Monticell 
Alabama, for one year, and for another year was pastor of the 
He then 
became successively professor of natural science in Marshall Col- 
lege, in Franklin and Marshall College, and in Lafayette College, 
where he has occupied the chair of botany since 1866. For nearly 
sylvania. Thomas C. Porter served a 
Second Reformed Church of Reading, Pennsylvania. 
forty years Professor Porter has devoted particular attention to 
the flora of his native state, and he has built up the great collec- 
tion of Pennsylvanian plants now preserved in the Herbarium of 
Lafayette College. 
botany, including A Catalogue of the Plants of Lancaster County, 
He is the author of many papers relating to 
United States from Pennsylvania, g ted from Jeff Col- 
lege in 1843 and devoted himself to the study of law, first prac- 
tata his profession at Hollidaysburg in Blair County, and then at 
W: ‘k in Huntingd 
slope of the Alleghany Mountains. 
County, at the foot of the eastern 
Here he passed the remainder 
of his life, occupied in the management of large business interests, 
which, however, left him leisure to devote himself to a critical 
study of the local flora. Lowrie’s love of trees and shrubs, which 
P. Wwania, published in Mombert’s history of the county in 
1869; A Sketch of the Botany of Pennsylvania, in Walling & 
Gray’s Topographical Atlas, published in 1872; A Sketch of the 
Botany of the United States, in Gray s ee published in 1873; A 
List of the Carices of P Ti din the P lings of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1887 ; and of vari- 
ous papers relating to the flora of Colorado and other western ter- 
ritories, included in the reports of government surveys. 
has 
Ie 
