SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



65 



narrow, somewhat egg-shaped, smooth, with a doubly-serrate 

 margin. The flowers, which appear in May or June, are white, 

 and arranged in pendulous racemes ; and the fruit is oval, almost 

 black, and bitter. 



Another wild 

 cherry, generally 

 known as the Gean 

 (P. Avium), is still 

 larger, sometimes 

 reaching a height of 

 thirty feet, and is 

 not uncommon in 

 woods and hedges. 

 The bark is smooth ; 

 the leaves abruptly 

 pointed, soft, droop- 

 ing, and downy be- 

 neath; and the 

 beautiful white 

 flowers are in almost 

 sessile umbels. The 

 calyx-tube of this 

 species is contracted 

 at the mouth, and 

 the fruit is either red 

 or black, heart- 

 shaped, and bitter. 

 The leaves turn to a 

 deep red colour in 

 the autumn. 



Among the 

 earliest flowers of 

 Spring are the white 

 blossoms of the Sloe 

 or Blackthorn {Pru- 



nus spinosa), which appear in March and April, some time before 

 the leaves. The shrub grows from four to eight feet high, has a 

 blackish bark, and numerous branches, the smallest of which ter- 

 minate in hard, rigid thorns. The leaves are ovate, finely-toothed, 

 smooth, stalked, with small, free stipules. The flowers are small, 

 shortly-stalked, with a free, deciduous calyx of five lobes ; five 



The Wild Cherry. 



