36 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACER. 
marked in the mouth of the throat with a conspicuous light orange-colored band. The petals are 
creamy white, a quarter of an inch long, nearly orbicular, and contracted at the base into short claws. 
The filaments and pistil are glabrous. The fruit, which ripens between the first of July and the first of 
September, is globular, a quarter of an inch in diameter, tipped with the remnant of the style, and light 
red. with a thick skin, thin sour flesh, and an oblong stone which has thin brittle walls and is ridged 
on the ventral margin. 
Prunus Pennsylvanica is distributed from Newfoundland to the shores of Hudson’s Bay and west 
to the eastern slopes of the coast range of British Columbia in the valley of the Frazer River,’ and 
south through the northern states to Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern Illinois, and central 
Towa. It is common on the high mountains of North Carolina, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains of Colorado, and in all the forest regions of the extreme northern states, growing in moist 
rather rich soil, reaching its greatest size on the western slopes of the Big Smoky Mountains in Tennes- 
see, and often occupying, to the exclusion of other trees, large areas cleared by fire of their original 
forest covering.’ 
The wood of Prunus Pennsylvanica is light, soft, and close-grained, with numerous medullary rays. 
Tt is ight brown, with thin yellow sapwood, and when absolutely dry has a specific gravity of 0.5023, a 
‘cubic foot weighing 31.30 pounds. 
The fruit is often used domestically and by herbalists in the preparation of cough-mixtures. 
Prunus Pennsylvanica® was first introduced into English gardens in 1773* by Lee & Kennedy, 
nurserymen at Hammersmith, although it was not described until eight years later ; and it was estab- 
lished in the Botanical Gardens of Berlin toward the end of the last century.” It grows rapidly in 
cultivation, and is a handsome and shapely although short-lived tree, and in early spring is conspicuous 
for the great quantity of flowers which cover its branches. 
1 Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 125. 
2 The ease with which the seeds of Prunus Pennsylvanica are 
important part in the reproduction and preservation of the forests. 
(See Michaux f. Hist. Arb. Am. iii. 160.— Robert Douglas, Garden 
disseminated by birds and mountain streams, their vitality and 
power of germination in soil where the upper layers of humus have 
been destroyed by fire, and the rapid growth of the young plants, 
which soon form a covering for longer lived trees, constitute the 
chief value and interest of this plant, which, in the northern part 
of the country east of the mid-continental plateau, has played an 
and Forest, ii. 285.) 
3 In some parts of the country Prunus Pennsylwanica is also called 
Pin Cherry and Pigeon Cherry. 
4 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, iii. 198. 
5 Willdenow, Berl. Bawmz. 248. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Prats CLVI. Prunus PENNSYLVANICA. 
Snare 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
An embryo, enlarged. 
Portion of a leaf with stipules, natural size. 
A winter branchlet, natural size. 
