ROSACES 



561 



petals broad-ovate, rounded at apex, more or less erose on the margins, contracted at base 

 into a short claw, white, turning pink in fading. Fruit ripening from the middle to the end 

 of August, oblong-oval, l'-lj' long, with a tough thick orange-red skin nearly destitute of 

 bloom, and yellow rather austere flesh; stone oval, compressed, 1' long, f wide, thick- 

 walled, acutely ridged on the ventral suture and slightly grooved on the dorsal suture. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk sometimes 8'-10' in diameter, divided usually 5-6 

 from the ground into a number of stout upright branches forming a narrow rigid head, stout 

 slightly zigzag branchlets marked by numerous pale excrescences, bright green, glabrous or 

 puberulous at first, and dark brown tinged with red in their second season, and stout spiny 

 lateral spur-like secondary branchlets. Winter-buds acuminate, f '- |' long, with chestnut- 

 brown, triangular scales pale and scarious on the margins. Bark about ' thick, light gray- 

 brown, with a smooth outer layer exfoliating in large thick plates of several papery layers, 

 and in falling exposing the darker slightly fissured scaly inner bark. Wood heavy, hard, 

 close-grained, rich bright red-brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. In the alluvial soil of river valleys and on limestone hills; western New 

 Brunswick (near the mouth of the Aroostook River) to the valley of the Saint Lawrence 

 River and westward to the southern shore of Georgian Bay, the northern shore of Lake 

 Superior (west of Port Arthur, Ontario), the valley of the Winnipeg River, Manitoba, and 



Fig. 515 



southward to northern New England, central and western New York, northern Ohio (Lor- 

 raine County), southern Michigan, northeastern Illinois, southeastern and western Wis- 

 consin (valley of the Wisconsin River), eastern Minnesota and North Dakota. 



Often cultivated in Canadian gardens and occasionally in those of the northern states as 

 a fruit-tree or for the beauty of its flowers. Varieties are propagated by pomologists. 



4. Primus americana Marsh. Wild Plum. 



Leaves oval to oblong-oval or slightly obovate, acuminate at apex, narrowed and cuneate 

 or rounded at base, and sharply often doubly serrate with slender apiculate teeth, when 

 they unfold glabrous or slightly pubescent, and often furnished below with conspicuous 

 axillary tufts of pale hairs, and at maturity thick and firm, more or less rugose, dark green 

 on the upper surface, pale and glabrous on the lower surface, 3'-4' long and l^'-lf ' wide, 

 with a thin midrib glabrous or villose-pubescent on the lower side, and slender primary 

 veins; petioles slender, eglandular or furnished near the apex with one or two glands, gla- 

 brous or puberulous, \'-\' in length. Flowers appearing in early spring before or with 

 the unfolding of the leaves, 1' in diameter, bad-smelling, on slender glabrous pedicels 



