220 THE MOUNTAIN. 



nigrum) are found growing sometimes five feet in diameter 

 and 110 feet high. Its trunk is rough and twisted, with 

 rugged, scaly bark, when it grows in open woods, but 

 slender, straight, and smoother when it grows in deep 

 forests with other trees, or in dense groves of its own 

 species. The white silvery wood of this tree is much valued 

 as fuel, also for cabinet purposes, especially when that freak, 

 or "fantastic trick" of the woody fibre occurs, producing 

 what is called "bird's-eye maple." Its well-known sugar- 

 sap gives one of the staples of the mountain. 



Acer rubrum is also found here. This species is called 

 "rock maple," and furnishes the variety of cabinet lumber 

 called "curly maple." 



The Acer Pennsylvanicum, striped maple, moosewood, 

 or striped dogwood, is a small, slender tree, with beauti- 

 ful foliage, and dark-green, handsomely- striped branches. 

 It grows abundantly on the mountain, but has no value as 

 timber, its trunk never attaining more than a few inches in 

 diameter. 



"Acer spicatum " is a tall shrub which grows in clumps 

 and thickets in the gorges and ravines of the mountain. 

 This little plant is called "mountain maple," and, although 

 only a bush, it bears a most striking resemblance to its im- 

 perial brothers, the arborescent species. 



There are several indigenous cherry-trees on the moun- 

 tain. These are of the genus Cerasus. 



Cerasus Pennsylvanica is a graceful little tree, quoted 

 by the botanists at twenty to thirty feet high, but often twice 

 that height. It bears snow-white blossoms on thin, bright- 

 red, and purple branches and twigs, followed by a red, sour 

 little cherry. 



Cerasl's Yirginiana is the choke-cherry. This is rather 

 a bush, scarcely ever aspiring to the tree form, and grows 

 along streams, bearing abundance of astringent fruit on 

 short, close racemes. • 



The Cerasus serotina is the wild black-cherry, said to 

 grow "thirty to sixty feet high." On the Alleghanies this 



