570 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



dull on the lower surface, l'-2' long and Y~ wide; petioles slender, glabrous or puberu- 

 lous, biglandular near the apex with 2 conspicuous red glands, bright red, \'-\' in length; 

 stipules linear or lobed, glandular-serrate, \' long. Flowers appearing before the leaves 

 from the beginning of March at the south to the middle of April at the north, \' in diameter, 

 on slender glabrous pedicels \'-\' long, in 2-4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube campanuiate, 

 glabrous, the lobes oblong, obtuse, entire ciliate on the margins with slender hairs, pale- 

 pubescent on the inner surface, reflexed at maturity; petals obovate, rounded at apex, con- 

 tracted at base into a short broad claw, white or creamy white. Fruit ripening between the 

 end of May and the end of July, globose or subglobose, about \' in diameter, bright red 

 or yellow, rather lustrous, nearly destitute of bloom, with a thin skin, and juicy subacid flesh ; 

 stone turgid, rugose, compressed at the ends, nearly \' long, more or less thick-margined on 

 the ventral suture and grooved on the dorsal suture. 



A tree, 15-25 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 8' in diameter, slender spreading 

 branches, and bright red and lustrous branchlets glabrous or covered at first with short 

 caducous hairs, becoming in their second year dull, darker and often brown, marked with 



Fig. 523 



occasional horizontal orange-colored lenticels, and frequently armed with long thin spines- 

 cent lateral branchlets; spreading into thickets. Winter-buds acuminate, ^' long, with 

 chestnut-brown scales. Bark about f ' thick, dark reddish brown and slightly furrowed, 

 the surface broken into long thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, although rather soft, 

 not strong, light brownish red with lighter colored sapwood. The fruit is often sold in the 

 markets of the middle and southern states. 



Distribution. Widely naturalized especially in the south Atlantic and Gulf states from 

 southern Delaware and Kentucky to central Florida and eastern Texas, occupying the 

 margins of fields and other waste places near human habitations usually in rich soil ; proba- 

 bly native in central Texas and Oklahoma. Passing into var. varians Wight & Hedrick, 

 differing from the type in its usually larger leaves occasionally up to %\' in length and to 1' 

 in width, in the longer pedicels of the flowers and in the ovoid to ellipsoid often pointed 

 stone of the red or yellow later ripening fruit. A tree usually spreading into thickets, 

 occasionally 12 high with a trunk 4' or 5' in diameter, small branches and slender often 

 spinescent chestnut-brown branchlets. Usually in richer soil than the type, southwestern 

 Kansas (Arkansas City, Desha County), through eastern Oklahoma and southern Arkansas 

 to northern and central Texas (Cherokee County) ; now occasionally naturalized in the 

 eastern Gulf States and possibly indigenous in Dallas County, Alabama, and Orange 

 County, Florida. 



A number of selected forms of this variety, including most of those formerly referred to 

 Prunus angustifolia, are grown and valued in southern orchards but are not hardy in the 

 north. 



