66 BULLETIN 179, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
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 besseyi. 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 
dwari 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. besseyi) 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 
‘‘Ragouminier,” 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. Linneus, in the second edition of the Species Plantarum, 
erroneously quoted Duhamel’s description under Prunus cana- 
densis L. 
Prunus Pumita Hysrins. 
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 campanulate, 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 (Pl. XIII, fig. 15). 
The originator (39; 40) of ane 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 calledacherry. 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 
