S02 ICOSANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 



331. PRUNUS. L. (Plum and Cherry.) 



Calix inferior, 5-cleft, deciduous. Petals 5. 

 StijU terminal. Drupe even, nut with a some- 

 what prominent suture. 



Trees with alternate stipulate leaves, generally serrated 

 on the marjjin and in some species glandular towards the 

 base, in a few the leaves are sempervirent; flowers earlier 

 than the leaves in the plums, later than the leaves in the 

 cherries, aggregated, corymbose, or racemose. 



Species. l.V.virginiana. 2. serotijia. o. canadensis. 

 4. coroUma7ia. (Evergreen Carolina Cherry-tree.) 5. sem- 

 perfiorens. 6. borealis. 7 ■ pensylvanica. 8. nigra. 9. hie- 

 malis. iO. pygmaa. 11. piibescens. 12. pumila. 3. depres- 

 aa. Ph. I*. Susgnehaima] W/i\ld. enum. 519. On the sum- 

 mits of the highest hills in upper Louisiana to the Kocky 

 Mountains, where it sometimes produces fruit at the 

 height of 3 or 4 inches from the ground; on the shores of 

 Lake Huron the same species attains the height of 2 or 3 

 feet. 14. Chicasa. In the United States, hitherto disco- 

 vered only in the vicinity of ancient Indian stations; it ap- 

 pears to have been cultivated by the aborigines, but its 

 original site is unknown. 15. wuintima. Tlie fruit rather 

 small, and scarcely eatable. 16. cerasifera. 17. spinosa. 

 The Sloe. I'hese 2 last are unquestionably introduced 

 and scarcely naturalized. 



Principally a North American genus; there are at the 

 same time 7 species in Japan, 1 in China, 7 in Europe, 2 

 in the West India islands, 1 indigenous to the mountains 

 of Crete and Lebanon, the poisonous but ornamental Lau- 

 rel from the Levant. P. Cerasus, the con.Tnon cherry, 

 and P. domestical the plum, although variously claimed in 

 Europe, have been probably introduced from Persia or 

 the East. 



S32. TIGAREA. Aiiblet. 



Calix inferior, 5-cleft. Tetals 5. Capsule 1- 

 seeded, oblons:, acuminate, pubescent, opening 

 internally and longitudinally. 



A tropical genus as far as described by Aublet and al- 

 most exclusively American, comprehending shrubs which 

 are said to be sarmentose, having entire leaves which are 

 usually scabrous and stipulate, producing flowers in axil- 

 lary racemes; a habit so diverse from the plant described 

 by Mr. Pursh, as to render the identity of genus extreme- 

 ly doubtful; in this plant, wliich appears to be a low, erect, 

 and much branched gemmiferous shrub, with small crowd- 

 ed pubescent leaves, obtuse and trifid at the summit, the 



