66 



zigzag — somewhat as in Malapoenna geniculata — and inclined 

 to be spinescent, as in several other species of plums. The 

 flowers were a centimeter or less in diameter, very short-pedi- 

 celled, and arranged in few-flowered sessile umbels, much like 

 those of Prunus angustifolia. 



At this time I had no collecting apparatus with me, and was 

 not going to be back in Tavares for several hours, so that there 

 was no way of preserving any specimens which would be recog- 

 nizable; and nearly two months elapsed before I had another 

 opportunity to visit this interesting region. On the morning of 

 April 17 I approached the same group of hills from the southwest 

 side, leaving the same railroad at Minneola ; and on some of the 

 highest hills about half way between Minneola and West Apopka 

 (which are about four miles apart in a straight line and ten miles 

 by rail) I found my new plum again in abundance. (I had had 

 glimpses of it two days before from a train between Killarney 

 and Minneola.) The leaves were of course full-grown by this 

 time, and the largest had blades about 2.5 cm. long and petioles 

 about a third of that length. Some were very much smaller, 

 but the average dimensions were probably about three-fourths 

 of the maximum. All were oblong, about twice as long as wide, 

 minutely mucronate at the apex, with finely crenate-serrate 

 margins, and most of them were aggregated on very short peg- 

 like branchlets in the manner of many other woody plants of the 

 Rosaceae and allied families. The drupes, although still green^ 

 must have been full-grown or very nearly so, and they were prac- 

 tically indistinguishable from those of Prunus angustifolia at the 

 same season. They were about 22 mm. long and 18 mm. in 

 diameter, on stout pedicels about 3 mm. long. 



At this time I photographed one of the largest bushes, which 

 was about four feet tall and well loaded with fruit, and made 

 several herbarium specimens from it. Wishing to ascertain the 

 size, color, taste, etc., of the ripe fruit, I revisited the place on 

 the twentieth of the following month, but was too late for it 

 that season. A diligent search failed to reveal a single fruit or 

 even a shriveled remnant of one, not even on the same bush 

 which had furnished my specimens a few weeks before. On May 



