82 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



statements that it bears great qiiantities of fruit and is used locally for 

 culinary purposes indicate that it may have some value under ctiltivation. 



i8. PRUNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA Marshall 



1. Marshall Arb. Am. iii. 1785. 2. Torrey and Gray Fl. N. Am. 1:407. 1840. 3. Loudon 

 Arb. Fr. Brit. 2:'jo5. 1844. /^. Saigent i othCen. U. S. 9:66. 1883. 5. Watson and Coulter (Jray'j 

 Man. Ed. 6:152. 1889 (in part). 6. Gray For. Trees N. A. 47, PI. 1891. 7. Sargent Sil. N. Am. 

 4:25, PI. 152. 1892. 8. Mohr Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6:551. 1901. 



P. chicasa. 9. Michaux' Fl. Bor. Am. 1:284. 1803. 10. Nuttall Gen. N. Am. PI. 1-302. 

 1818. II. Elliott Sk. Bot. S. C. and Ga. 1:542. 1821. 12. Hall PI. Texas 9. 1873. 13. Ridg- 

 way Proc. U. S. Nat. Miis. 65. 1882. 14. Chapman Fl. Sou. U. S. 131. 1897. 



Plant seldom becoming a true tree, usually, however, forming a small but distinct 

 trunk with a twiggy, bushy top ; bark thin, dark reddish-brown, slightly furrowed or 

 roughened, scaly ; branches slender, usually zigzag with long, thin thorns or spine-Uke 

 branchlets; branchlets slender, zigzag, glabrous, glossy, bright red; lenticels few, 

 scattered, yellowish, raised. 



Winter-buds small, obtuse, free, brownish; leaves folded upward, lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, pointed at both ends, thin, membranaceous, margins closely and 

 finely serrate with minute teeth, tipped with glands; upper surface glabrous, lustrous, 

 bright green, lower surface glabrous or pubescent in the axils of the veins, duU, two- 

 thirds inch wide and from one to two inches long; petioles one-half inch long, slender, 

 glabrous or tomentose, bright red with two red glands near or on the base of the leaf; 

 stipules one-half inch long, narrow-lobed, serrate with gland-tipped teeth. 



Flowers appearing with or before the leaves, small, less than one-half inch across, 

 very numerous; umbels sub-sessile, two to four-flowered, from lateral spurs or buds; 

 pedicels glabrous, slender, one-half inch in length; calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous; 

 calyx-lobes obtuse, glabrous outside, margins ciliate, inner surface pubescent, reflexed; 

 petals creamy in the bud, obovate, apex rounded, narrowing into a claw at the base; 

 filaments and pistils glabrous, the latter shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit ripening early; spherical or ovoid, three-quarters inch in diameter, bright red, 

 sometimes yellow, glossy, with little or no bloom; dots numerous, very conspicuous; 

 skin thin; flesh tender, juicy, yellow, subacid ; quality rather poor; stone smaU, clinging, 

 ovoid, turgid, slightly roughened, cherry-like, edges rounded, the dorsal one grooved. 



The original home of Prunus angustifoUa is not known. The in- 

 ference is left in most of the botanies that the species is not indigenous 

 in the region east of the Mississippi, but that it was brought by the abo- 

 rigines from the southwestern section of the Mississippi Valley or possibly 

 the southern Rocky Mountains or Mexico. The chief reason for the belief 



' The writer has examined the type specimen of Michaux's Prunus chicasa in the herbarium 

 of the Jardin des Plants in Paris and found it, though incomplete and poorly preserved, plainly 

 not Prunus angustifoUa but more likely some form of Prunus umbellata. Undoubtedly, however, 

 the references which follow Michaux's are to Prunus angustifoUa. 



