NAUVE AMEKICAN SPECIES OF PRUNUS. 49 



ripening at the same time and being scarcely distinguishable in color 

 and shape from that of P. orthosepala. It is about 3 cm. long and 

 nearly the same in diameter, being shghtly larger than the fruit of the 

 latter species and with a longer stone. (PI. XIII, fig. 2.) 



A plum very similar to if not identical with at least some of the 

 above was first brought into cidtivation by Abram Laire, a few miles 

 south of Kirwin, in the southern part of Phillips County, Kans. 

 (fig. 2). Mr. Laire was interviewed in September, 1910, and the fol- 

 lowing account of the variety known as Laire (PI. XIII, figs. 3 to 5) 

 was obtained. About the year 1878 (Mr. Laire is uncertain whether 

 it may not have been a year or two later than that date) he and his 

 son brought in from a wild state from various locahties along Bow 

 Creek a number of young plum trees. Among these trees when they 

 fruited he discovered perhaps half a dozen trees that produced fruit 

 of superior quahty, and these were then noticed to have different 

 fohage from either the sand plum or Prunus americana. Mr, Laire 

 was, however, unable to rediscover the thicket from which they were 

 obtained, although his son beheves them to have been secured from 

 a thicket in a pasture not far distant which had later been destroyed 

 by cattle. E. Bartholomew, of Stockton, Kans., estimated in 1910 

 that there were at least 100,000 trees of this variety under cultivation 

 in that part of Kansas, but he has never observed it in a wild state. 



The variety Laire, as it grows in Kansas, is a larger tree than 

 Prunus orthosepala, and the serrations of the leaves are distinctly 

 rounded. The flowers appear identical with those of the latter 

 species, except in the usually, though not always, shorter pedicels 

 and in the length of the calyx lobes, which are shghtly shorter, show- 

 ing in these respects, as in the more rounded serrations of the leaves, 

 a closer approach to the sand plum. The fruit is nearly globose, 

 dark red wnth a distinct bloom, and ripens in September. The Laire 

 also suckers badly, while P. orthosepala does not appear to do so, 

 though possibly if grown under the same conditions as regards culti- 

 vation it might show that character. 



The fact that all this closely related material came to notice about 

 1880 suggested that possibly Prunus orthosepala might have been of 

 Kansas origin and led to a careful examination of Dr. Engehnann's 

 notes and some of his correspondence, but without discovering 

 anything concerning the origin of this species or, in fact, without 

 finding mention of any form that could bo interpreted as referring 

 to it. 



Prunus orthosepala, as it grows in the Arnold Arboretum and in 

 Mr. Kerr's nursery, boars rather sparingly, but Mr. Korr suggests that 

 this may bo duo to the want of proper poUinizors. A si)ocimon in 

 IliglJand Park, Rochester, N. Y., where a number of other species are 



7424<1'— BuU. 170—15 1 



