58 BULLETIiSr 119, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



above, pale and strongly pubescent and reticulate below, the margin 

 finely serrate with acute or sometimes obtuse teeth, these gland 

 tipped when young, the blades with or without a gland on either side 

 near the base; petioles 5 to 8 mm. long, pubescent and eglandular, or 

 with one or two glands near the apex. Flowers 9 or 10 mm. broad, 

 appearing before the leaves from the middle of March to about the 

 middle of April, in umbels of 2 to 4 ; pedicels and calyx finely pubes- 

 cent, the pedicels 7 to 10 mm. long; calyx tube campanulate, 2.5 

 mm. long, the lobes ovate and acute, enthe or mmutely dentate 

 toward the apex, 1.5 to 2 mm. long, eglandular, pubescent on both 

 surfaces; petals obovate to obovafre-orbicular, 4 to 5 mm. long and 

 about 3 mm. broad. Fruit globose or slightly oval, 14 to 18 mm. in 

 diameter, usually red, with a light bloom, ripening from the middle 

 of June in the South to early m August and said to be quite palatable; 

 stone oval (PI. XII, figs. 20 and 21), about 13 mm. long, 9 mm. 

 broad, and 6 mm. thick, somewhat obtuse at the ends, a thick wing 

 on the ventral edge, with a groove on either side and a shallow groove 

 along the dorsal edge, the surface nearly smooth. 



Prunus gracilis is a small, straggling shrub 1 to 4 feet high, growing 

 in scattered clumps, or forming loose thickets; bark of the stem 

 grayish, that of the young twigs pubescent, dull reddish brown 

 turning to gray during the first winter. 



Its area of distribution (fig. 3) is from northern Oklahoma and 

 the extreme western part of Arkansas southward to the Colorado 

 River, in Texas. The Tennessee locality frequently cited appears 

 to be based on the young foliage of Prunus mexicana. 



The following note is taken from a specimen labeled ''Arkansas 

 River, Ind. Terr., 1882." 



It seldom attains a greater height than 4 feet and when in full fruitage lays down 

 upon the grass beneath it, vinelike. The fruit is larger when found on larger shrubs. 

 It abounds only on sandy soil and delights in a sand bluff. Millions of this fruit 

 grow on the Arkansas River and its tributaries in Kansas [?] and the Indian Territory. 

 It is finely flavored and of every shade of color when ripe; different specimens ripen 

 at different dates, so "plum season" is a long one. 



Mr. T. V. Munson says it is especially subject to the attacks of 

 the ''black-knot" fungus {Plowrightia morhosa (Schw.) Sacc), and 

 for that reason he endeavored to destroy a small thicket growmg in 

 his nursery at Denison, Tex. 



Prunus cJiicasa normalis was described from ' ' Texas and Arkansas, 

 Dr. Leavenworth; Texas, Drummond." These specimens are in the 

 herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. That of Drummond 

 from Texas is P. gracilis. Dr. Leavenworth's Arkansas specimen 

 is liihelad" Prunus cTiicasa^. Prairies of Arkansas, April," and appears 

 UiWj^rangustifolia. The Texas sheet of this collector has tvv'o speci- 

 rii^lFoEce in flower, which is P. gracilis, and the other with foliage 

 and fruit, which does not, appear^to^be^^this species. P. gracilis 



