68 BULLETIN 179, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Prunus Besseyi Bailey. 
(Western sand cherry.) 
Prunus besseyi Bailey, 1894, N. Y. Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 70, p. 261. 
Prunus pumila besseyi Waugh, 1899, Vt. Agr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 12, p. 239. 
Prunus rosebudvi Reagan, 1907, in Ber. Deut. Bot. Ges., Jahrg. 25, Heft 6, p. 343. 
Prunus prunella Daniels, 1911, in Univ. Mo., Studies, Sci. Ser., v.2, no. 2, p. 151. 
Leaves oval-elliptic or oblong-obovate (Pl. VII, fig. 5), rarely 
narrower and oblanceolate, 3 to 4.5 cm. long, 9 to 15 mm. broad, 
cuneate toward the base, acute or rarely obtuse at the apex, sharply 
serrate from below the middle, glabrous on both surfaces; petiole 
5 to 6 mm. long; stipules linear and glandular serrate or sometimes 
shghtly laciniate. Flowers appearing with or before the leaves in 
the prairie region from the last of April to the middle of May orat | 
higher altitudes probably somewhat later, 10 to 12 mm. broad, in | 
clusters of 3 to 4; pedicels and calyx glabrous; pedicels 6 to 7 mm. 
long, glandular; petals oblong-oval, narrowed to a claw, about 6 mm. 
long. Fruit nearly black or varying to red and yellowish, nearly 
globular or somewhat oblong, 15 to 18 mm. in diameter, ripening 
in August and September; stone nearly globose to somewhat ovoid 
(Pl. XII, figs. 25 to 28) 7.5 to 10 mm. long, 6 to 8 mm. broad, 5.5 
to 6.5 mm. thick, rounded or even slightly truncate at the base and 
obtuse or somewhat pomted at the apex, grooved on sues side of 
the ventral and along the dorsal edge. 
Prunus besseyi is a dwarf, bushy shrub, 1 to 4 feet high, erect or 
often more or less prostrate, sprouting from the roots, though not 
forming a dense growth or thicket. 
Its distribution (fig. 4) includes South Dakota, where it was col- 
lected by Geyer in 1839 on the ‘“‘hills of Missouri near the mouth 
of Shian+ [Cheyenne] River,” to Nebraska and Kansas and the eastern 
slope of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado and Wyoming. 
The western sand cherry is distinguished from Prunus pumila 
by its more bushy habit and broader leaves, from P. cuneata by its 
more pointed leaves, and from both these species by its leaves being 
shorter in proportion to their width and more prominently serrate, 
by the shorter petioles, and by its usually larger fruit. 
It was introduced into cultivation in 1892 as the ‘Improved 
Dwarf Rocky Mountain,” by Charles E. Pennock (2, p. 60; 3, p. 159), 
of Bellvue, Colo., who says he first saw this cherry in 1878 along the 
Cache la Poudre River, about 8 miles from his farm. It had been 
cultivated in the gardens in the same country, however, at least a 
few years earlier than its discovery by Mr. Pennock (2, p. 60) along 
1 Nicollet (57, p. 143). The name of this river is spelled Shayen,and there can be little doubt that it is 
the stream designated by Geyer “‘Shian.’”’ The specimen is in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical 
Garden. 
