NATIVE AMERICAN SPECIES OF PRUNUS. 7) 
- the leaves from the first week in April in the South to the latter part 
of May and before the leaves in the northern part of its range; pedicels 
slender, mostly 7 to 15 mm. long, glabrous; calyx tube obconic and 
about 3 mm. long, glabrous or inconspicuously pubescent, the lobes 
as long or slightly longer than the tube, lanceolate or oblong-lanceo- 
late, obtuse or sometimes acute, obscurely glandular on the margin 
mainly above the middle, or sometimes eglandular, dentate toward 
the apex, glabrous or inconspicuously pubescent on the outer and 
soft-pubescent on the inner surface, reflexed at anthesis; petals 
oblong-oval or obovate and narrowed to a claw, mostly 8 to 10 mm. 
long, 4.5 to 6 mm. broad, entire or obscurely erose toward the apex, 
sometimes slightly ciliate near the base. Fruit extremely variable 
in the time of ripening, ranging from early in July in the South and 
from the end of August to early October in the North, subglobose or 
sometimes even somewhat oblate to slightly elongated, 1.8 to 2.5 em. 
long, varying from reddish orange to red, marked with numerous 
minute, whitish dots and with a bluish bloom or sometimes nearly 
destitute of bloom, skin rather thick and tough, flesh yellow; stone 
(Pl. VIII, figs. 1 to 16) oval, turgid, 13.5 to 16 mm. long, 10 to 14 
mm. broad, narrowed at the base and pointed or sometimes rounded 
at the apex, grooved on either side a short distance from the ventral 
edge, sometimes also with a slight ridge on either side and a shallow 
eroove along the ventral edge as on the dorsal, the surface smooth 
or sometimes obscurely rugose. | 
The tree reaches a maximum height of about 35 feet with a trunk 
diameter of about 12 inches. It sometimes grows singly, but more 
often sprouts from the roots and frequently forms thickets of consid- 
erable extent. The branches are more or less spinescent, spreading, or 
often somewhat drooping toward the extremities, bark of the trunk 
dark brown, exfoliating in platelike scales, that of the young twigs 
chestnut colored and eventually turning dark brown; winter buds 3 
to 4 mm. long, narrowly ovate, acute. The wood is heavy, close 
grained, and fairly strong. | 
Prunus americana is distributed (fig. 1) from central Massachusetts 
and central New York westward to central Michigan and northern 
Indiana, thence northwestward to the vicinity of Brandon, Manitoba. 
It reaches its extreme western limit in the vicinity of Logan in 
northern Utah, and occurs along the eastern foothills of the 
Rocky Mountains in Colorado extending southward to Las Vegas 
in New Mexico. It apparently does not occur in the dry region of 
eastern Colorado or in the extreme western part of Kansas, but 
farther east it extends southward to southern Kansas and through 
central Missouri, while east of the Mississippi River it extends south- 
ward nearly to the Gulf, in Mississippi and Alabama. It is found in 
northern Florida, but does not occur in the peninsular part of the 
