24 BULLETIN 179, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
‘in America boreali et in altis montibus Novae Angliae,” and the 
type specimen is probably in the Michaux herbarium at the Muséum 
d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris. Michaux’s description is scarcely 
distinctive, but if he really had a specimen from the mountains of 
New England it could not be other than Prunus: nigra. P. mollis 
was described by John Torrey from a specimen collected by Chester. 
Dewey ‘‘in Massachusetts, on the road from Willams College to Troy.” 
This specimen is preserved in the Herbarium of Columbia University, 
at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York City. 
The legend on the sheet reads “I found this on the road to Troy and 
the people said it was not set out as they believed, for it is common 
in the woods.” The specimen is unquestionably P. nigra. : 
Prunus nigra is grown locally in various parts of Canada and the 
fruit is sold on the markets in many of the cities, yet it has given 
rise to very few named varieties and has not occupied the place in 
American horticulture which it deserves. The strength of the wood ~ 
enables the tree to withstand the heavy snows and severe storms of 
Canada with less injury from breaking than is the case with P. « mer- 
icana, and this fact with its hardiness should commend it for regions 
subject to such conditions. 
The varieties Aitkin, Cheney, Crimson, Itasca, Odegard, Oxford, 
Smith Red, Snelling, and Whyte, although showing slight differences, 
are typical of the species. The varieties Hanson and Wazata have 
leaves narrower in proportion to their length and with more unequal 
serrations; these are rounded, however, and the calyx characters 
are those of Prunus nigra. Similar specimens have also been col- 
lected in a wild state. 
Prunus AMERICANA Marsh. 
(Wild plum.) 
Prunus americana Marsh., 1785, Arb. Amer., p. 111. 
Prunus latifolia Moench, 1785, Verz. Ausl. Baume, p. 85. 
Prunus hiemalis Michx., in part, 1803, Fl. Bor. Amer., t. 1, p. 284. 
Cerasus americana Hook. and Arn., 1835, in Comp. Bot. Mag., v. 1, p. 24. 
Prunus ignotus [ignota] Nelson, 1906, in Bot. Gaz., v. 42, no. 1, p. 53. 
Leaves (Pl. I, fig. 1) oval or sometimes oblong-oval to narrowly 
obovate, 6 to 10 em. long, 2.5 to 5 em. broad, acuminate toward the 
apex and usually rather gradually narrowed at the base, green and 
glabrous above, pale and glabrous below, except along the midvein, 
or entirely glabrous or rarely thinly and inconspicuously pubescent, 
the margin sharply and sometimes doubly serrate; petioles 7 to 14 
mm. long, pubescent along the upper surface or sometimes glabrate, 
eglandular, or with one or two glands near the apex; stipules linear 
or lobed and the lobes linear, glandular along the margin. Flowers 
18 to 25 mm. broad, in nearly sessile umbels of 3 to 4, appearing with 
