Part 40

=Note.=--The New England plants here put under the head of Crataegus mollis have been referred by Prof. C. S. Sargent to Crataegus submollis (Bot. Gaz., XXXI, 7, 1901). The new species differs from the true Crataegus mollis in its smaller ovate leaves with cuneate base and more or less winged leafstalk, in the smaller number of its stamens, usually 10, and in its pear-shaped orange-red fruit, which drops in early September.

It is also probable that C. Arnoldiana, Sargent, new species, has been collected in Massachusetts as C. mollis. It differs from C. submollis "in its broader, darker green, more villose leaves which are usually rounded, not cuneate at the base, in its smaller flowers, subglobose, not oblong or pear-shaped, crimson fruit with smaller spreading calyx lobes, borne on shorter peduncles and ripening two or three weeks earlier, and by its much more zigzag and more spiny branches, which make this tree particularly noticeable in winter, when it may readily be recognized from all other thorn trees."--C. S. Sargent in Bot. Gaz., XXXI, 223, 1901.

DRUPACEAE. PLUM FAMILY.

Trees or shrubs; bark exuding gum; bark, leaves, and especially seeds of several species abounding in prussic acid; leaves simple, alternate, mostly serrate; stipules small, soon falling; leafstalk often with one to several glands; flowers in umbels, racemes, or solitary, regular; calyx tube free from the ovary, 5-lobed; petals 5, inserted on the calyx; stamens indefinite, distinct, inserted with the petals; pistil 1, ovary with 1 carpel, 1-seeded; fruit a more or less fleshy drupe.

=Prunus nigra, Ait.=

Prunus Americana, var. nigra, Waugh.

WILD PLUM. RED PLUM. HORSE PLUM. CANADA PLUM.

=Habitat and Range.=--Native along streams and in thickets, often spontaneous around dwellings and along fences.

From Newfoundland through the valley of the St. Lawrence to Lake Manitoba.

Maine,--abundant in the northern sections and common throughout; New Hampshire and Vermont,--frequent, especially in the northern sections; Massachusetts,--occasional; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.

Rare south of New England; west to Wisconsin.

=Habit.=--A shrub or small tree, 20-25 feet high; trunk 5-8 inches in diameter; branches stout, ascending, somewhat angular, with short, rigid branchlets, forming a stiff, narrow head.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk grayish-brown, smooth in young trees, in old trees separating into large plates; smaller branches dark brown, season's shoots green.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, acute, dark brown.

Leaves 3-5 inches long, light green on the upper side, paler beneath, pubescent when young; outline ovate-obovate or orbicular, crenulate-serrate; teeth not bristle-tipped; apex abruptly acuminate; base wedge-shaped, rounded, somewhat heart-shaped, or narrowing to a short petiole more or less red-glandular near the blade; stipules usually linear, ciliate, soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--Appearing in May before the leaves, in lateral, 2-3-flowered, slender-stemmed umbels; flowers about an inch broad, white when expanding, turning to pink; calyx 5-lobed, glandular; petals 5, obovate-oblong, contracting to a claw; stamens numerous; style 1, stigma 1.

=Fruit.=--A drupe, oblong-oval, 1-1-1/2 inches long, orange or orange-red, skin tough, flesh adherent to the flat stone and pleasant to the taste. The fruit toward the southern limit of the species is often abortive, or develops through the growth of a fungus into monstrous forms.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England, and will grow, when not shaded, in almost any dry or moist soil. It has a tendency to sucker freely, forming low, broad thickets, especially attractive from their early spring flowers and handsome autumn leaves.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Flower with petals removed. 4. Petal. 5. Fruiting branch. 6. Stone.

=Prunus Americana, Marsh.=

A rare plant in New England, scarcely attaining tree-form. The most northern station yet reported is along the slopes of Graylock, Massachusetts, where a few scattered shrubs were discovered in 1900 (J. R. Churchill). In Connecticut it seems to be native in the vicinity of Southington, shrubs, and small trees 10-15 feet high (C. H. Bissell in lit., 1900); New Milford and Munroe, small trees (C. K. Averill).

Distinguished from P. nigra by its sharply toothed leaves, smaller blossoms (the petals of which do not turn pink), and by its globose fruit.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Flower with part of perianth and stamens removed. 4. Petal. 5. Flowering branch. 6. Stone.

=Prunus Pennsylvanica, L. f.=

RED CHERRY. PIN CHERRY. PIGEON CHERRY. BIRD CHERRY.

=Habitat and Range.=--Roadsides, clearings, burnt lands, hill slopes, occasional in rather low grounds.

From Labrador to the Rocky mountains, through British Columbia to the Coast Range.

Throughout New England; very common in the northern portions, as high up as 4500 feet upon Katahdin, less common southward and near the seacoast.