154 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



of central Europe, and is now found apparently wild in various localities in England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland. There are many records 1 of P. Cerasus in the county floras ; 

 but in most cases its occurrence is so rare and local, as to suggest that it is possibly 

 only a recent escape 2 from some neighbouring orchard, from which the fruit has been 

 carried by birds. It is said, however, to be well established in some woods on the 

 Pennine range in Cumberland, and in others in Surrey and Kent. Mr. R. A. 

 Phillips tells me that it is plentiful in old hedgerows in many parts of Ireland ; and 

 he has seen it in a wild glen near Lehinch in County Clare. (A. H.) 



PRUNUS MAHALEB, St. Lucie Cherry 



Prunus Mahaleb, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 472 (1753); Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, 



vi., pt. ii. 156 (1906). 

 Prunus odo rata, Lamarck, Fl. Franc, iii. 108 (1778). 

 Cerasus Mahaleb, Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 4 (1768); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 707 



(1838); Mathieu, Flore Forestiere, 140 (1897). 

 Padus Mahaleb, Borkhausen, Handb. Forstbot. ii. 1434 (1803). 



A deciduous shrub or small tree, occasionally attaining 40 ft. in height. Young 

 branchlets pubescent with dense erect short hairs. Leaves broadly ovate, \\ to 2 

 in. long, 1 to \\ in. broad; shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base; 

 dark shining green and glabrous above ; lighter green beneath, with dense long 

 pubescence on each side of the midrib ; crenately serrate, each serration with a minute 

 sharp gland ; petiole slender, glabrous, with one or two large glands. 



Flowers, appearing with the leaves, in short simple corymbs, each with two 

 small leaves at the base, and four to eight flowers above ; axis, slender pedicels, and 

 wide-mouthed calyx glabrous ; sepals ovate, obtuse, entire. Fruit ovoid, \ in. long, 

 blackish when ripe. 



I. The following varieties are known in the wild state : 



1. Var. transilvanica, Schur, Enum. PL Trans. 180 (1866). Flowers small, 

 numerous in the corymb ; sepals reflexed. This occurs in Transylvania. 



2. Var. Cupaniana, Fiori and Paoletti, Fl. Anal. Ital. i. 561 (1896) (Prunus 

 Cupaniana, Gussone, Flor. Sic. Syn. i. 55*3 (1842)). A low shrub, with small 

 coriaceous leaves ; flowers few in the corymb. This occurs in mountain woods in 

 Sicily ; and a similar, if not identical form, has been found in Dalmatia. 



II. Several varieties have arisen in cultivation : 



3. Var. chrysocarpa, Nicholson, in Kew Hand-List Trees, i. 143 (1894). Fruit 

 yellow. 



4. Var. globosa, Dieck, ex Dippel, Laubholzkunde, iii. 621 (1893). A globose 

 compact bush. 



1 Mr. W. B. Crump has sent me specimens from Elland Park Wood, near Halifax, taken from small trees and bushes 

 which resemble P. Cerasus in habit and are apparently wild. The flowers, however, have a calyx with the constricted tube 

 and entire lobes of P. Avium ; and in all probability these trees are hybrids between the two species. 



J Mr. M. R. Pryor sent me a specimen from a shrub about 14 ft. high, growing in a wood at Weston Park, Stevenage. 

 This shrub, the only one we know of apparently wild in Herts, has not increased appreciably in size during the last twenty 

 years. 



