514 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



pubescent on the outer, pubescent or tomeutose on the inner surface, reflexed after 

 the unfolding of the narrowly obovate petals rounded and occasionally emarginate 

 at the apex, contracted below into long narrow claws, entire, erose, or occasionally 



serrate, and pure white or often marked with orange toward the base. Fruit ripen- 

 ing in September and October, on stout stems, globose to short-oblong, -|'-1' in diam- 

 eter, with thick acid deep red or sometimes yellow skin, hard austere thin flesh, 

 and a turgid stone |'-f ' long, compressed at the ends, abruptly short-pointed at the 

 apex, conspicuously ridge-margined on the ventral and broadly and deeply grooved 

 on the dorsal suture, thick-walled, rugose, and deeply pitted. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a slender often inclining trunk, frequently 5'-6' or 

 occasionally 10'-12' in diameter, dividing usually several feet above the ground into 



stout spreading branches, and stout rigid branchlets marked by minute pale lenti- 

 cels, glabrous or slightly puberulous during their first summer, rather dark brown, 

 and usually unarmed or on vigorous trees armed with stout spinescent lateral 

 branchlets; or often a shrub, with many stems forming thicket-like clumps. Winter- 



