Plum Botany 19 



incurved, callous teeth ; flowers in long racemes ; fruit black, 

 bitter, as big as peas. Quebec to Kansas and southward. 

 Shows many interesting variations. In New Mexico and 

 Mexico it runs into the following. 



Prunus serotina salicifolia Waugh. — P. salicifolia 

 H. B. K. P. capuli Car. — Willowleaf cherry, Mexican cherry. 

 Has longer, narrower leaves than the former. Found along 

 the Mexican border and in Mexico. Prunus alabamensis 

 Mohr, seems to stand somewhere between this and the last. 



Prunus virginiana Linn. — Choke cherry. Tall shrub 

 or small tree, with oval, oblong or obovate leaves, abruptly 

 pointed, thin, sharply serrate, with slender, projecting teeth; 

 flowers in racemes, snorter and closer than in Prunus serotina; 

 fruit ripening in summer, red, turning almost black, astringent 

 when green, but fairly eatable when fully ripe. Ranges from 

 Newfoundland to Manitoba and British Columbia, south to 

 Georgia, Texas and Colorado. Occasionally cultivated. 



Prunus virginiana demissa Torr. — P. demissa Walp. — 

 Western choke cherry. A western extension of the former, 

 having thicker, stiffer, boader leaves, more inclined to be gray 

 tomentose on the backs, more obtuse at the apex. Rocky 

 mountains and westward. 



Prunus caroliniana Ait. — Carolina Laurel cherry. A 

 small, ornamental evergreen tree, native to the south Atlantic 

 states ; leaves coriaceous, smooth, glossy, lance-ovate or oblong, 

 entire, or with a few sharp appressed teeth ; flowers in dense, 

 upright racemes which are shorter than the leaves ; fruit small, 

 black and bitter. 



