280 HOW TO KNOW W^ILD FRUITS 



overripe become bluish black. They are oval, 

 with calyx teeth and stigmas at the pointed tip. 

 The flesh is thin, and the stone rounded on 

 one side and with a rather deep groove on the 

 other, making a cross section resemble a horse- 

 shoe that has been flattened at the toe. The 

 fruits grow in a flat-topped, erect cluster. They 

 are dry and puckery, but are eaten by birds. 

 August, September. 



Leaves. — The leaves are opposite, coarsely 

 and prominently toothed, ovate, pointed at the 

 tip, and rounded or heart-shaped at the base. 

 The petioles are short. Little tufts of hair are 

 often in the axils of the midrib and branching 

 veins on the lower surface. The leaves are 

 yellowish green. Dark red is the autumnal 

 color. 



This shrub is from five to fifteen feet high, 

 and has smooth gray bark. The under leaf 

 surface has the little clusters of down in the 

 axils. The name Arrowwood is applied to 

 the shrub from the use made of the young 

 shoots for arrows by the Indians. It inhabits 

 moist places and borders streams. It extends 

 south, along the mountains, to Georgia and west 

 to Minnesota. 



