1 1 8 FLO WE RING SHRl 'BS. 



cut at the margins of the thin, ovate, oblong leaves, which are soft, silky 

 and folded together ; at first they are of a reddish-bronze, but they 

 take a bright tint of green when more mature. The flowers are on 

 slender foot-stalks, jjetals narrow and wavy. The calyx remains 

 persistent, as in the Pear and Apple. The fruit of this pretty June- 

 berry is small ; when ripe it is of a pink or rose colour ; sweet and 

 juicy but somewhat insipid ; not so nice as another form which is known 

 in some places by the name of Sheep-berry. This forms a handsome 

 bush about ten feet high, the flower and fruit larger than the former, 

 the berries dark red, almost purple when ripe in July, with a pleasant 

 nutty flavour. Open thickets on the sides of ravines on the Rice Lake 

 plains were favourite localities for the Sheep-berry. Another dwarf 

 June-berry, not more than five or six feet high or less, grows in the 

 sandy flats on these same plains. This is a pretty low shrub with green- 

 ish-white racemes of flowers and oval leaves, fruit dark purplish-red, sweet 

 but the berries are small, not larger than currants; the bark of thebranchlets 

 of this little June-berry, is dark red, and the leaves are very downy 

 underneath, the fruit is ripe in July and August about the same time as 

 the Huckleberries. 



Dwarf Cherry — Sand Cherry. — Primus piDiiila (L). 



The Dwarf Cherry, more commonly known as Sand Cherry, is 

 chiefly found on light, sandy lands ; it is a low, bushy shrub, from 

 eighteen inches to two feet in height : the slender branches are inclined 

 to trail upon the ground, sometimes rooting ; the centre stem is more 

 Upright. This little cherry has a pretty appearance when covered with 

 the clusters of small, white, almond-scented blossoms, which on short 

 slender foot stalks spring, in twos or fours, from the base of the small 

 pale-green leaves that clothe the reddish-barked branches ; the fruit, 

 not exceeding the size of a common pea, is purplish-red, without bloom 

 on the surface. The Sand Cherry abounds on light plain-lands ; it is 

 the smallest of the wild Cherries, and is far more palatable than the 

 fruit of some of the larger trees of the Genus. In flavour it partakes 

 more of the nature of the Damson or Plum. Possibly under cultivation 

 the fruit might be greatly improved in size and cjuality : and the plant 

 is so j)retty an object, whether in flower or fruit, that it would repay th^ 

 trouble of cultivation in the garden as an ornamental dwarf shrub. So 

 eagerly is the fruit sought for by the Pigeons and Partridges, that it is 

 difficult to obtain any quantity even in its most favoured localities. 



Choke-Cherry. — Fru/ius Virginiana (L). 



Very tempting to the eye is the dark-crimson, semi-transparent 

 fruit, when fully ripe, of the Choke-Cherry, and not unpalatable, but so 



