8o THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



pubescent; calyx-tube obconic, tomentose, with erect, entire, sharply pointed, ciliate, 

 tomentose lobes; petals white, orbicular, clawed; filaments and base of pistil tomentose. 

 Fruit maturing in late summer, three-quarters inch long, oblong, with but a trace 

 of cavity and suture, dark purple with light bloom; flesh thin, sour and very astringent; 

 skin thick, tough; scarcely edible; stone ovoid, long, flat, roughish, pointed at both 

 ends with a groove on one edge and a grooved ridge on the other. 



In 1898 Small described Prunus injucunda as a new species from what 

 had hitherto been considered a part of Prunus umbellata. Sargent, whom 

 we follow, gives it as a botanical variety of Prunus umbellata. Small says 

 that the two differ as follows: Prunus injucunda has "a more rigid habit 

 and the foliage, including the branchlets, is velvety tomentose. In place 

 of the sub-globose drupe of Prunus umbellata we find an oblong fruit of an 

 extremely bitter taste. The stone is correspondingly lengthened." To 

 these differences may be added tomentose or pubescent leaves, hairy umbels, 

 and tomentose calyx and pistil, as characters not foimd in Prunus umbel- 

 lata though there are occasional pubescent individuals in the species. 



Small first collected Prunus injucunda in sandy soil in the granite 

 districts about the base of Little Stone Mountain, Georgia, and reports 

 it as occurring about Stone Mountain. Mohr reports the plant on rocky 

 summits and among the sandstone clifEs of Alpine Mountain, TaUadego 

 County, Alabama, as a low, unsightly shrub, four feet in height, with short, 

 straggling branches. The wild fruit is seldom fit for domestic use and 

 with so much better material in other species the fruit-grower can hardly 

 afford to spend time in an attempt to domesticate this one. 



16. PRUNUS MITIS Beadle 

 I. Beadle BiU. Bot. Stud. 1:162. 1902. 2. Britton and Brown TV. Am. Trees 489. 1908. 



Tree small, maximum height twenty-five feet; bark dark brown or reddish-gray; 

 branches spreading or ascending, usually unarmed; branchlets glabrous, glaucous; 

 leaves thin, elliptic, oblong-lanceolate, sometimes ovate or obovate, apex acute or acu- 

 minate, base narrow or rounded, margin sharply serrate; petioles less than one-half 

 inch, densely pubescent, with two glands at or on the base of the leaf; upper surface 

 bright green, finely pubescent, lower surface paler, also pubescent and with a prominent 

 midrib and veins. 



Flowers of medium size, appearing before the leaves; borne in sub-sessile, two to six- ' 

 flowered umbels; calyx-tube obconic, smooth, its lobes triangular, pubescent on the outer 

 and velvety on the inner surface; petals white, obovate, clawed; pedicels slender, smooth, 

 three-quarters inch long. 



Fruit ripening in mid-summer; over one-half inch in length, oblong, dark purple 

 with a heavy bloom; stone ovoid or oval, flattened, nearly one-half inch long, pointed 

 at both ends especially at the apex, and crested on one edge. 



