Nov. io, 1913 
Pubescent-Fruited Species of Prunus 
165 
necked, 1 to 1.8 cm. long, dull grayish or greenish yellow with thickly pubescent 
surface, usually with prominent, coarse, reticulate venation as it dries; the thin flesh 
dry, leathery, and astringent, or, rarely, more succulent and with edible qualities, 
usually splitting along the ventral suture at maturity after the fashion of an almond. 
Stone roundish, unsymmetrical, turgid or compressed, the narrow dorsal wing 
having a shallow groove; the ventral wing often much expanded; has an acute central 
ridge usually flanked by parallel ridges and obscure reticulate veins; surface smooth 
Fig. 4.— Prunus andersonii Gray: A, Petal, X 3; B, section of a flower, X 3; 
C, calyx showing ciliate margins, X 3; dried fruit times natural 
size; F , G, stone, i 1 /* times natural size. 
or obscurely or decidedly pitted; apex rounded to an acute point, base with a more 
or less thin, attenuated neck; kernel small, pointed, grooved in some varieties, edible, 
often strongly flavored with prussic acid. (Fig. 4.) 
This species is one of the most distinctive of those commonly included 
in* the Emplectocladus group. 
On mountain sides and dry foothills of eastern California and Nevada 
it is a squarrose, much-branched and spiny shrub, 1 to 2 meters in height 
and diminishing to 0.5 or 0.7 meter at its upper limit of growth. In 
more favorable situations, along the shore of Pyramid Lake and other 
localities where better soil and a more constant supply of water occur, it 
becomes a large shrub or even a small tree. Forms appear reaching 
over 3 meters in height, nearly free from spines, with clean, free growing 
branches and have the appearance of young peach or almond trees. 
(PI. XII, figs. 1 and 2.) Well-marked varietal forms are found, not only 
