12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Black Cherry. 

 I'ranua serdtina. — Ehrh. 



This widely distributed wild cherry, or 

 wiia black cherry, supplies the cherry wood 

 „i commerce. Its range of growth is from 

 Nova Scotia westward through the Canadian 

 provinces to the Kaministiquia river; south 

 to Tampa bay in Florida and west to North 

 Dakota, eaftern Nebraska, Kansas, 

 Indian Territory and eastern Texas. 



The tree is known as wild black 

 cherry in Vermont, Massachusetts, 

 :, Island, New York, New Jer- 

 sey, Delaware, North Carolina, Ala- 

 Mississippi, Louisiana, Ken- 

 tucky. Missouri, Ulinois, Iowa, Wis- 

 in, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, 

 Dakota and Ontario; wild 

 ry in Connecticut, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Vir- 

 ginia. North Carolina, South Caro- 

 lina, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Ar- 

 kansas. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, 

 Iowa, Wisconsin; black cherry in 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Khode Island, New York, Missis- 

 sippi, Kentucky, Michigan, Wiscon- 

 sin, Indiana and Nebraska; rum 

 cherry in New Hampshire, Massa- 

 chusetts, Ehode Island, Mississippi, 

 Nebraska ; whiskey cherry in Minne- 

 sota, and choke cherry in Missouri, 

 Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Illi- 

 nois. 



The wild cherry is of the plum 

 family. In shape the head is nar- 

 row and the branches horizontal; in 

 height it runs from fifty to one hun- 

 dred or more feet. The bark is a 

 dark reddish brown, rough and 

 broken into plates, becoming smooth- 

 er toward the top. The branchlets 

 are a rich reddish brown, and are 

 marked with tiny orange-colored 

 dots; aromatic; bitter. The leaves 

 are small; alternate; oblong or oval 

 lanceolate ; taper-pointed at the apex 

 ami pointed or rounded at the base; 

 finely serrate with small teeth; at 

 maturity glabrous; firm; glossy; 

 the light colored mid-rib being very 

 distinct. The flowers are white and 

 grow on pedicels in long slender 

 racemes, which terminate leafy 

 shoots; the calyx is bell-shaped and 

 five-lob -d; the corolla is made up 

 of five small petioles; the stamens 

 are numerous; but one pistil. The fruit is 

 almost black, showing deep red coloring be- 

 neath and is a small round drupe; vinous, 

 although not disagreeable to the taste. 



Alice Lounsberry in "A Guide to the 

 Trees," has this to say of the foliage of the 

 black cherry: "In early spring when the 

 bloom unfolds, it is so soft and light that its 

 stem holds it uprightly in the surrounding 



SIXTEENTH PAPER. 



atmosphere; but as it fades away and the 

 rich, heavy fruit matures, the slender stalk is 

 not equal to its weight. So it supplely bends 

 and the clusters are seen drooping all through 

 the bright foliage of the tree. Along road- 

 sides and in the woods and glades the tree is 

 a familiar character. Especially towards the 

 northern limit of its range it forms a quan- 



TYPICAL FOREST GROWTH OF BLACK CHERRY, BLOUNT 

 COUNTY, TENN. 



tity of shrubby growth by fences. Little 

 boys and wayfarers enjoy eating the fruit, 

 and in many farmhouses there is reserved for 

 especial occasions, in the corner of some old 

 cupboard, a bottle of cherry bounce." 



The recorded dry weight of black cherry is 

 thirty-six and a half pounds per cubic foot. 

 It grades as a moderately hard wood, very 

 similar in density to beech; has neither taste 



uor smell. Its surface is lustrous, especially 

 in radial section; the grain is fine, open and 

 generally straight; the heart wood is a light 

 brownish red in color and very uniform in 

 tone; the sap wood yellowish-white and usu- 

 ally thin. The rings of growth are clear, 

 showing a fine dense boundary line of autumn 

 wood, usually accompanied by a fairly con- 

 tinuous row of pores in the early 

 spring wood. 



Cherry is regarded as one of the 

 most valuable and popular of our na- 

 tive woods and used quite exten- 

 sively for interior finish and furni- 

 ture. It lends itself most readily 

 to the finisher's art and holds a re- 

 markable sheen — almost undimmed 

 by years of constant use. 



F. S. Mathews, in his work enti- 

 tled "Familiar Trees," has this to 

 say on the subject of black cherry: 

 ' ' One of our most picturesque trees, 

 which in perfect figure is more 

 likely found on the confines of some 

 field or on the bank of a river, is 

 the wild black cherry. Here it is 

 not hampered by the crowding 

 growth of the forest, and it spreads 

 itself over the wide expanse of blue 

 sky in bold and charmingly rugged 

 outlines. 



"The tree is not symmetrical, 

 and its foliage is not luxurious — on 

 the contrary, it is rather thin; but 

 in spite of this, the wild black 

 cherry, with its unconventional 

 branches and its shining green 

 leaves, is a beautiful tree such as 

 an artist likes to draw. Where 

 other trees spread plume-like 

 against the sky, a solid mass of 

 green, the black cherry's topmost 

 branches are penciled in dainty sil- 

 houette. This is one of the means 

 by which I can identify the tree at 

 a great distance. It is always in 

 contrast with its surroundings. 



' ' We are so often attracted by 

 contrast in natural landscape, that 

 I am constrained to call attention 

 to it as an indispensable accessory 

 of beauty; in a word, without the 

 thin foliage and unobstructed 

 boughs of some of our less luxu- 

 riant trees, a landscape, especially 

 if wooded, is heavy and monotonous. 

 But we might look far before we 

 would find the wild black cherry listed as a 

 beautiful tree in the nurserymen's catalogues. 

 Why} Well, I niiv explain at once that there 

 are those whose sense of the beautiful is nar- 

 rowed down to the confines of a single fact; 

 for instance, a regularly proportioned tree 

 with an orderly habit is considered beautiful ; 

 that is as far as some people allow imagina- 

 tion to go. That ruggedness, picturesqueness, 



