The Trees of Vermont 155 



ROSACEAE 



^Vild Red Cherry. Bird Cherry. Pin Cherry 

 Prunus pennsylvanica L. f. 



Habit.^ — A slender tree, seldom over 30 feet high, with a trunk 

 diameter of 8-10 inches; crown rather open, narrow, rounded, with 

 slender, regular branches. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, 3-5 inches long, ^4-134 inches broad; 

 oblong-lanceolate ; finely and sharply serrate ; bright green and shining 

 above, paler beneath; petioles slender, y^-l inch long, glandular near 

 the blade. 



Flowers. — April-May, with the leaves; perfect; about ^ inch 

 across, borne on slender pedicels in 4-5-fiowered umbels, generally 

 clustered, 2-3 together ; calyx 5-cleft, campanulate ; petals 5, white, 34 

 inch long; stamens 15-20. 



Fruit. — July- August ; a globular drupe, 34 inch in diameter, light 

 red, with thick skin and sour flesh. 



Winter-buds. — Terminal bud y^ inch long, broadly ovoid, rather 

 blunt, brownish, smooth. 



Bark. — Twigs at first lustrous, red, marked by orange colored 

 lenticels, becoming brownish ; red-brown and thin on the trunk, peeling 

 ofif horizontally into broad, papery plates ; bitter, aromatic. 



Wood. — Light, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thin, yellow 

 sapwood. 



Distribution. — Common throughout Vermont, even on the higher 

 mountains. 



Habitat. — Roadsides ; burned-over lands ; clearings ; hillsides. 



Notes. — The wild red cherry, a small, slender tree, is distributed 

 quite generally from the rocky woods of Newfoundland to North Caro- 

 lina. It is common in all parts of Vermont where often it is only a 

 roadside shrub. The flowers appear in May on long pedicels in beau- 

 tiful white clusters. The fruit, which ripens in midsummer, is small 

 and globular, becoming bright red when mature. This tree is dis- 

 tinguished from the other cherries by its slender and more graceful 

 form, by its lighter colored, close-growing bark, often covered with 

 transverse scars (lenticels), by its small flowers in spreading clusters 

 and by its very small globular fruit similarly clustered. 



