THE BOTANY OF THE BUSH FRUITS. 241 



THE BOTANY OF THE BUSH FRUITS. 



FEED W. CARD. 



The term "bush fruits" is a comprehensive uame, including small, 

 shrubby, fruit-bearing plants in general. The most important of these 

 are the raspberry and blackberry family, the currant and gooseberry 

 family, the juneberry, the buffalo berry, the tree cranberry, and the 

 goumi. 



Several botanical forms of the juneberry are in cultivation. The 

 one which is perhaps the most promising of all for the west is that 

 known as Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt. This is primarily a western 

 species, being found in the Rocky mountains and westward, but it also 

 extends eastward into Nebraska, Minnesota, and even northern Michi- 

 gan. It is a shrub raoging from three to eight feet in height, and 

 differs from the eastern juneberries chiefly in its broadly elliptical or 

 roundish-obtuse leaves, which are coarsely toothed toward the summit. 



The other prominent type in cultivation is that known as A. cana- 

 densis, var. oblongifolia Torr. & Gray. This is a dwarf form of the 

 juneberry or shad-bush of the eastern states, differing from the latter 

 chiefly in its blunt and woolly leaves and woolly racemes which ap- 

 pear with the leaves, while in the species itself the flowers come in ad- 

 vance of the leaves. The variety known as Success belongs to this 

 type. The genus Amelanchier is a difficult one from a botanical point 

 of view and there seems to be some confusion in regard to the differ- 

 ent forms. 



The tree-cranberry, so called, is a species of Viburnum, not a cran- 

 berry in any sense of the word. The particular species is Vibmmum 

 ■opulus Linn. In cultivation this has been made to vary in the direc- 

 tion of having its flowers changed into enlarged corollas and is planted 

 for ornament under the names Guelder-rose and Snowball Tree. Such 

 flowers are sterile and produce no fruit. The fruit of the wild form 

 resembles that of the cranberry in shape and color, but is quite differ- 

 ent in flavor. Its chief drawback is to be found in the large seeds. 



