560 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



veins, l'-3' long and f'-l j' wide; petioles stout, tomentose or ultimately pubescent, \'- 

 in length, glandular at apex with 2 large round stalked dark glands, or often eglandular; 

 stipules acicular, often bright red, about %' long. Flowers appearing early in April 

 with or before the leaves, about f ' in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in 2 or 3-flow- 

 ered umbels; calyx-tube narrow-obconic, glabrous toward the base, villose above, the 

 lobes acute, entire, villose on the outer surface, hoary-tomentose on the inner surface; petals 

 oblong-obovate, gradually contracted below into a short claw. Fruit ripening late in Octo- 

 ber or early in November, on stout rigid pedicels, short-oblong to subglobose, \'-\' long, 

 clear bright yellow on some trees, bright red on others, and on others purple, dark blue, or 

 black, with tough thick skin, and thick very acid flesh; stone ovoid more or less compressed, 

 very rugose, obscurely ridged on the ventral suture and slightly grooved on the dorsal 

 suture, acute and apiculate at apex, and rounded at base. 



A tree, 20-25 high, with a tall trunk 18'-20' in diameter, wide-spreading branches form- 

 ing an open symmetrical head, and slender branchlets marked by small scattered dark len- 

 ticels, light-green and hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming glabrous, light 



Fig. 514 



red-brown and lustrous during their first summer and darker at the end of their second year. 

 Winter-buds narrow, acute, the color of the branchlets, T ^ '- -' long. Bark \'-\' thick, light 

 brown tinged with red, and divided by shallow interrupted fissures into flat ridges broken on 

 the surface into small loose plate-like scales. 



Distribution. Glades and open woods in the neighborhood of Marshall, Harrison County, 

 Texas, to western Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and western Mississippi. 



3. Prunus nigra Ait Red Plum. Canada Plum. 



Leaves oblong-ovate to obovate, abruptly contracted at apex into a long narrow point, 

 cuneate, truncate or slightly cordate at base, and doubly crenate-serrate with small dark 

 glandular teeth, when they unfold faintly tinged with red and pubescent on the under sur- 

 face or glabrous with the exception of conspicuous tufts of slender white or rufous hairs in 

 the axils of the primary veins, and at maturity thick and firm, dull dark green on the upper 

 surface, pale on the lower surface, 3'-5' long and l'-3' wide, with a conspicuous pale midrib 

 and slender veins; petioles stout, biglandular at apex with 2 large dark glands, \'-V in 

 length; stipules lanceolate or on vigorous shoots often 3-5-lobed, glandular-serrate, \' long. 

 Flowers appearing in early spring with or before the leaves, 1|' in diameter, on slender gla- 

 brous dark red pedicels, '-f ' long, in 3 or 4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube broad-obconic, 

 dark red on the outer surface, bright red on the inner surface, the lobes narrow, acute, gland- 

 ular, glabrous or occasionally pubescent on the outer surface, reflexed after the flowers open; 



