Cer 



asus vtrgimana^ 



THE VIRGINIAN CHERRY-TREE. 



Synonymes. 



Primus scrotina, 

 Ctrasus vir pniana, 



Ctrasus scrotina, 



Cerisicr de Vir^inie, 



Virglnischcr Kirschbauni, 



Cilie<!^i() di Viri^iiiia, 



Virginian Bird Clierry-tree, 



Wild Cherry-tree, Black Cherry-tree, 



EiiRiiART, Beitrage ziir Naturkund. 



Mil iiAix, NdpiIi Aiiiiricaii Sylva. 



LoLDoN, Arbiireluiii Bntaiinii'iiin. 



TuiiREV AM) GuAY, Flora ol North America. 



De Candolle, Prodromus. 



France. 



Germany. 



Italy. 



Britain. 



Anglo- America. 



Ens:rnrines. Mi:haux, North American Sylva, pi. 83; Loudon, Arboretum Brltannlcum, ii., fig. 418 el vi. pi. Ill, anu 

 the figures below 



Sptcijic Characters. Leaves (rather coriaceous) oval, oblong, or lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, glabrous, 

 or bearded along the midrib beneath, smooth and shining above, finely serrate, with appressed, or 

 incurved callous" teeth ; petioles, (or base of the leaf,) mostly with two or more glands; racemes elon- 

 gated, spreading; petals broadly obovatc ; drupes globose, purplish-black. Torrey and Gray, Flora. 



Description. 



p^'j^^HE Cerasus virgin- 

 s' ST^ i^ iana, where the soil 

 Ij? LI (^ and chmate are the 

 ^ most congenial to its 

 growth, sometimes attains a height of eighty 

 or one hundred feet, with a trunk three or four 

 feet in diameter; but it varies much in size, 

 according to the circumstances under which 

 it grows. In England and the North Ameri- 

 can British provinces, it seldom exceeds thirty 

 or forty feet in height, with a triink ten or 

 twelve inches in diameter ; and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Great Slave Lake, in latitude 

 62 N., it grows only to a height of about five 

 feet. The general surface of the bark is 

 smooth ; but it is blackish and rough, detach- 

 ing itself in narrow semi-circular, hard, thick 

 plates, which adhere for a time to the tree, 

 previous to dropping off. The trunk is usu- 

 ally straight for about one fourth of its height, where it ramifies into a spreading 

 summit of a handsome outline ; but its foliage is too thin to display that massy 

 richness which gives so much beauty to the maples and many other trees. The 

 leaves are usually from two to four inches long, toothed, very much pointed, and 

 of a beautiful, smooth, shining green, with two or more small reddish glands 

 at the base. The flowers are white, and occur in spikes, which, when fully 

 expanded, have a beautiful efiect. They put forth in Florida and the state of 

 Georgia in the month of February, but in some parts of Canada, not before the 

 early part of June. The fruit is about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, of a 



