AN APPARENTLY UNDESCRIBED SPECIES OF PRUNUS FROM CONNECTICUT.
To venture to describe a new species of P1711111S from the long explored territory of the State of Connecticut may seem to some to be questionable, but so clear a case has recently come to my notice that to do otherwise would be unjust to nature.
The plant in question is a low slender branching shrub, reach ing a maximum height of about twelve decimeters. The main stem is clothed with a dark rough bark and, like the principal branches, is leafless, the ascending twigs and branchlets only pro ducing leaves. The small white flowers arc confined to the branchlets just below the leaf-producing parts. The small globose drupe is deep purple or almost black, covered with an abundant light blue bloom. To the taste the fruit is bitter and astringent.
The species occurs on a cross-shaped area, on a low gravelly ridge near Long Island Sound, at Groton, Connecticut, and is re lated to Prunus man'tima, which grows in the immediate neighbor hood and under precisely the same conditions, thus affording an excellent opportunity for a comparison of characters: 1. The new species is lower, more slender and delicate in habit than P1711111S maritima, maturing both its leaves and fruit earlier in the season.
2. The small suborbicular type of leaf, as against the larger elongated type characteristic of the beach plum. This character is very apparent from the time the buds begin to unfold.
3. The smaller flowers with the suborbicular petals, which are about 5 mm. in diameter and abruptly narrowed at the base, as compared with the larger broadly obovate petals of Prunus mart twea, which are gradually narrowed at the base.
4. The smaller always globose short-pedicelled drupe, in place of the longer often elongated and long-pedicelled fruit of the beach plum.
5. A small and very turgid stone (nearly as thick as broad), which is pointed only at the base. The stone of Pninus maritima is flatter and usually pointed at both ends.
6. Sprouts arising from the ground never produce flowers, as they frequently do in the case of Prunus mar/lima.
This plum was discovered by Dr. Charles B. Graves, of New London, Connecticut, to whom I am indebted for specimens and much of the substance of this paper, and whose name I wish to • associate with the plant as