32 BULLETIN 179; U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



and grooved near the ventral edge, rather conspicuously grooved 

 along the dorsal edge, somewhat ridged toward the base, and the 

 surface obscurely roughened. 



Prunus subcordata is often only a shrub 3 to 10 feet high with crooked 

 stem and branches. In moist fertile soils it grows to a height of 15 

 to 25 feet. It often forms extensive thickets or clumps. The bark 

 of the trunk is grayish brown, furrowed, and somewhat scaly; the 

 main branches are rather thick and start out nearly horizontally 

 from the trunk. The young twigs are reddish, either glabrous or 

 pubescent, and marked with orange-colored lenticels. 



The species is found (fig. 1) ii^ central Oregon and northeastern 

 California, thence southward along the western slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada to the Yosemite Valley, where it occurs at an altitude of 

 4,000 feet, in the coast ranges of California in Lake County, in the 

 hills east of Santa Rosa, and on Black Mountain, Santa Clara County. 



Prunus suhcordata was originally described from the upper valley 

 of the Sacramento, where it appears to have been first collected by 

 Karl Theodor Hartweg in 1836 or 1837. 



Prunus suhcordata Tcelloggii does not appear to show any botanical 

 differences from the type. The larger size of the tree and the larger 

 and superior quality of the fruit ascribed to the proposed subspecies 

 are not correlated with any other character; and these are variations 

 that occur in all the species of the genus. The author of this sup- 

 posed form says of it : 



The variety is abundant near Sierra City, Sierra Co., Cal., where along with the 

 type, the writer has observed it almost annually since 1867. It prevails generally 

 in the more northerly parts of the state, and has long been observed and its superior 

 qualities noted by my friend Mr. Sisson, of Strawberry Valley at the base of Mt. 

 Shasta, where it grows plentifully along streams that course through rich meadow 

 lands. Dr. Kellogg described it, though without giving it a varietal name, as early 

 as 1859, in Hutching' s Magazine * * * [36]. 



Since Hutching's Magazine is a somewhat rare publication, it may 

 be of interest to quote what Dr. Kellogg writes concerning this plum: 



It is very probable that many of om* readers who dwell in the principal mercantile 

 cities are unaware that in the mountains of this state there are not less than two 

 varieties of a very excellent wild plum. One is almost the size — although we have 

 seen some much larger — and shape of that given in oiu" engraving, the other is a little 

 smaller, oblong, and almost the shape and color of a damson when ripe. This latter 

 variety his not yet been examined and classified by botanists; but if some of oiu* 

 friends who are coming to the city will bilng a good specimen with them and leave it 

 with us, we will see that this is done. 



Both varieties of this plum grow on low bushes and not on trees like other wild 

 plums at the east, and are about the height and conformation of the illustration given 

 on page 10. '\ 



They generally\grow in patches or groups, at the heads of ravines, at an altitude 

 seldom less than 2,000 feet above the sea, and mostly in open localities adjacent to 



