36 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



It is doubtful if this cherry is as promising for cultivation as the 

 foregoing species and not nearly as worthy attention as the next cherry. 



PRUNUS BESSEYI Bailey. 



I. Bailey Cor. Ex. Sta. Bui. 70:261. 1894. 2. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3:156. 1895. 3. Bessey 

 Neb. Hort. Soc. 26:168. 1895. Bessey /. c. 37:121. 1906. 4. Britton and Brown ///. Flora 3:251. 

 1897. 



P. pumila Besseyi. 5. Waugh VI. Ex. Sta. Rpt. 12:239. 1898-99. 6. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 

 3:1451. 1901. 



Plant a small shrub, spreading or diffuse, one to four feet in height, open-centered, 

 slow-growing, hardy ; trunk slender, smooth ; branches slender, smooth, very dark brownish- 

 black, with numerous lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with short intemodes, dull 

 grayish-brown becoming almost black, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, small, raised 

 lenticels. 



Leaves hanging late, numerous, small, two and three-eighths inches long, one inch 

 wide, thick, stiff, slightly folded upward or nearly flat; apex with a short taper-point, 

 broadly lanceolate to nearly oval -lanceolate ; upper surface dark green, glossy, smooth; 

 lower surface very light green, not pubescent; midrib distinct, glabrous; veins small but 

 distinct; margin serrate, teeth appressed, tipped with indistinct, sharp glands; petiole 

 thick, three-eighths inch in length, glandless or with from one to two very smaU, light 

 colored, globose glands on the petiole at the base of the leaf; stipules very prominent, 

 almost leaf-like. 



Flowers appearing with the leaves in sessile umbels, small, less than a half-inch across, 

 white; fruit more than a half -inch in diameter, globose, sometimes oblong- pointed, 

 yellowish, mottled or more often purple-black; variable in quality but always more or less 

 astringent; ripening in early August; stone large, globose, slightly flattened. 



The habitat of Primus besseyi is not yet definitely bounded but it 

 can, at least, be said that this species is to be found on the prairies from 

 Manitoba and Minnesota to southern Kansas and westward into Montana, 

 Wyoming and Utah. In its natural range it undoubtedly runs into that 

 of Primus pumila to the east, and Waugh, in the reference given, holds 

 that the two species grade into each other and he, therefore, makes this 

 a variety of the eastern species. Certainly Primus pumila and Prunus 

 besseyi are as distinct as are many other of the more or less indefinite 

 species of this genus — few, indeed, are the species of Prunus that do not 

 have outliers which overlap other types and, as we shall see, there are 

 hybrids between this and species of other cherries, plums and even peaches 

 and apricots, showing that the lines of demarcation between the members 

 of this genus are difficult to define. 



Although Prunus besseyi has received attention from horticulturists 

 less than a quarter-century it has aroused much interest, best indicated 



