NATIVE AMERICAlJr SPECIES OF PEUNUS. 41 



Peunxjs Munsoniana Wight and Hedrick. 



Prunua munsoniana Wight and Hedrick, 1911, in Hedrick, Plums of New York, 



p. 88. 

 Prunus hortulana Bailey, in part, 1892, N. Y. Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bnl. 38, p. 16. 

 Pruniis hortulana Waugh, 1899, in Vt. Agr. Exp. Sta. 12th Ann. Rpt. , p. 195. (Not 



P. hortulana Bailey, 1892, in Gard. and Forest, v. 5, p. 90.) 



Leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate (PI. IV, fig. 1), or sometimes 

 broadly oblong-lanceolate, usually 6 to 10 cm. long, 2.5 to 4 cm. 

 broad, rounded at the base, acute or occasionally somewhat acumi- 

 nate at the apex, the margins rather finely glandular serrate, bright 

 green and lustrous on the upper surface, the lower surface paler and 

 rather sparingly pubescent along the midrib and lateral veins, the 

 pubescence often tufted in the axils of the veins, the surface rarely 

 pubescent except when young, and even more rarely entirely glabrous; 

 petioles slender, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, with a pubescent line along the 

 upper side, usually biglandular near the base of the leaf blade; 

 stipules linear, glandular serrate. Flowers 12 to 15 mm. in diameter, 

 appearing from the last of March before the leaves in the South to 

 the last of May and with the leaves in the North (latitude of New 

 York), in 2 to 4 flowered, umbellike clusters; pedicels slender, gla- 

 brous, 10 to 12 mm. long; calyx tube campanulate, glabrous, ob- 

 scurely nerved, about 3 mm. long, the lobes ovate-oblong to oblong 

 and obtuse at the apex, as long as the tube, glandular on the margin, 

 glabrous or rarely sparingly pubescent on the outer surface, pubescent 

 on the inner surface near the base, or the pubescence rarely extending 

 above the middle, the margin usually ciliate toward the base; petals 

 6 to 7 mm. long, obovate or oblong-obovate, abruptly contracted 

 into a short claw, the margin entire or sparingly erose. Fruit globose 

 or oval, usually bright red with whitish dots and sometimes yellowish 

 markings and a light bloom, ripening in July and August; stone 

 oval (PI. XI, figs. 1 to 16), varying from 9 by 13 mm. in the wild 

 state to 12 by 20 mm., or even 14 by 20 mm. in some of the cultivated 

 varieties, usually truncate or obliquely truncate at the base, pointed 

 at the apex, grooved on the dorsal edge, thick margined and rather 

 conspicuously grooved on the ventral, the surface irregularly rough- 

 ened, though sometimes rather inconspicuously so. 



The species forms dense thickets in its native habitat with the 

 older central specimens sometimes attnining a height of 20 or more 

 feet and gradually diminishing in height to the edge of the thicket. 

 When budded and grown in the orchard it forms a well-defined trunk 

 and attains a height of 25 feet or more. The branches are little or 

 not at all spinescent; the bark of the stem in young specimens is 

 redclLsh or chestnut brown and usuully rather smooth, becoming 

 scaly and losing its reddish color with age; that of the young twigs 

 ia usually chestnut brown. 



