66 BULLETIN" 179, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



As yet apparently only one named variety of the species has been in 

 cultivation, and it is probably of less value and has received less 

 attention than its near relative, Prunus hesseyi. The attention of 

 horticulturists was called to the species many years ago. Andrew S. 

 Fuller (25, p. 184) gives the following note, taken from his diary of 

 1846: 



August 3, 1846, Thunder Bay Islands, Lake Huron. — Visited Hat Island, and found 

 dwarf cherry (Cerasus pumila) very abundant, the plants growing on the beach in 

 almost pure sand; bearing stems depressed with the weight of fruit; wonderfully 

 productive. Fruit one-half inch long and three-eighths broad; dark purple, nearly 

 black, sweet, but rather insipid; suckers abundant, from the underground stems or 

 roots. 



This is followed by a discussion of a form (P. hesseyi) seeds of which 

 he had received from Utah. 



Prunus pumila appears to have been first described by Duhamel 

 (19, p. 149) as a Cerasus, but without a binomial name, and it is also 

 included by Miller in the 1759 edition of the Gardener's Dictionary. 

 Miller says the seeds were sent to him from Paris, under the title of 

 "Kagouminier," which was the name given them in Canada, where 

 they were also called ''Nega" or "Minel." The seeds were sent to 

 Miller by Bernard de Jussieu, and were planted in the Chelsea Garden. 

 The tree flowered in May, and the fruit, according to Miller, ripened 

 in July. Linnaeus, in the second edition of the Species Plantarum, 

 erroneously quoted Duhamel's description under Prunus canor- 



densis L. 



* Prunus Pumila Hybrids. 



Compass. — Leaves oblong or oblong-oval, 5 to 9 cm. long, 2.5 to 

 4 cm. broad, narrowed or rounded toward the base, acute or short 

 acuminate at the apex, the margin conspicuously dentate with 

 appressed rounded or glandular teeth, glabrous and dark green 

 above, sparingly pubescent and pale below. Flowers appearing 

 mostly before the leaves, about 18 mm. broad; pedicels about 6 mm. 

 long; calyx tube campanula te, about 2 mm. long, equaled by the 

 oblong lobes, the latter glandular and obscurely pubescent within or 

 glabrous. Fruit dark red, nearly 2.5 cm. in diameter, ripening early 

 in August; stone oval (PI. XIII, fig. 15). 



The originator (39; 40) of this hybrid writes as follows: 



This new fruit, which was originated by me, is a cross (which I made in the spring 

 of 1891) between the sand cherry {Prunus pumila) and the Miner plum. It is botan- 

 ically called a cherry. Years ago I received plants of the sand cherry, native to eastern 

 Minnesota, from J. S. Harris. 



Flowers of the sand cherry were pollinated with pollen from the 

 Danish Morello cherry and from the Miner plum. Stamens were 

 removed from only one blossom of the sand cherry, and the fruit result- 

 ing from this flower appears to have been the only one to receive 



