290 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



solitary footstalks, though the flowers grow by twos or threes 

 in short racemes. This shrub lies close to the ground ; makes 

 no approach to the tree form ; seldom exceeds a foot in height ; 

 and so much resembles the Salix myrsinites and some other 

 depressed willows, that, on looking for catkins, I have not been 

 undeceived until I found the footstalks of the last year's cherries. 

 The fruit of this sand cherry is sweeter than that of the pre- 

 ceding one. Whether it be the Cerasus depressa of some 

 botanists I cannot determine ; nor do I pretend to clear up the 

 confusion that exists in botanical works respecting C. pumila 

 and depressa. 



C. pennsylvanica, wild red cherry, the Pasis-so-wey-minan 

 of the Chippeways, and Pasi-a-wey-minan of the Crees, pro- 

 duces a small sour red fruit, which grows in a many-flowered 

 raceme on long slender footstalks. Its equatorial limit, accord- 

 ing to the United States' botanists, is the New England States 

 and Pennsylvania, where it is a slender tree 20 or 25 feet 

 high. Its polar limit is within the Saskatchewan basin, which 

 it ascends towards the base of the Rocky Mountains, nearly 

 to the height of 2,000 feet above the sea. C. virginiana, choke 

 cherry, is named by the Crees Ta-kivoy~minan, and by the 

 Dog- ribs Ki-e-dnnne-yerre. It was found by Lieut. Abert on 

 the Kansas and Arkansas, and on Purgatory Creek ; and is, in 

 northern latitudes, a shrub with long branches. At Fort Liard, 

 on the 61st parallel, it is 20 feet high, and on the confines of 

 the arctic circle, where it terminates, it does not exceed four or 

 five feet. The fruit can scarcely be said to be edible by itself ; 

 but it is often pounded, stones and all, and mixed with pemican. 

 C. serotina, wild black cherry, is a general inhabitant of 

 Rupert's Land, extending westward to the valleys of the Rocky 

 Mountains on the Pacific side, where, however, it is generally 

 dwarfed ; and northwards to near Great Slave Lake. It is said 

 by Dr. Gray to be a fine large tree in the Northern States, with 

 purplish-black fruit, having a pleasant vinous flavour. Besides 

 these I gathered specimens of a cherry-tree, not in flower, on 

 Athabasca and Slave Rivers, which Sir William Hooker is in- 

 clined to consider as the C. mollis, discovered by the unfortunate 



