42 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACEA, 
tion of conspicuous tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the principal veins on the lower surface, or are 
puberulous or pubescent ; at maturity they are membranaceous, bright green above, paler and sometimes 
pubescent below, two to four inches in length and an inch to two inches broad, and are borne on slender 
grooved petioles biglandular near the apex, or sometimes, especially on vigorous shoots, many-glandular. 
The stipules are lanceolate, acute, glandular-serrate, half an inch long, and early deciduous. The leaves 
turn yellow in the autumn some time before falling. The flowers, which are from one third to one 
half of an inch in diameter, appear from the first of April in the south to the end of June at the extreme 
north; they are borne on slender glabrous or puberulous pedicels produced from the axils of scarious 
caducous bracts in slender many-flowered erect or nodding racemes three to six inches long. The 
calyx-tube is cup-shaped, glabrous or rarely puberulous, with short broad obtuse reflexed deciduous 
lobes, laciniate or more or less glandular on the margins. The petals are pure white, orbicular, and 
contracted below into short claws. The filaments and pistil are glabrous, and the short thick style is 
abruptly enlarged into a broad orbicular stigma. The fruit, which varies from one fourth to one third 
of an inch in diameter, is globose or occasionally somewhat elongated, bright red when first fully grown, 
and when perfectly ripe is dark vinous red or almost black, or rarely yellow or amber-colored,' with a 
thick lustrous skin, dark juicy flesh, and an oblong-ovate stone, broadly ridged on one margin and 
acute on the other. In early autumn the fruit is austere and astringent, but later loses much of its 
astringency and becomes sweet and edible.’ 
Prunus Virginiana is the most widely Steines North American tree; it grows within the 
arctic circle,’ ranging across the continent from Labrador and the shores of Hudson’s Bay to the valley 
of the Mackenzie River in latitude 62°, and, crossing the Rocky Mountains, reaches the Pacific coast in 
* it extends southward through eastern North America to southern Georgia, 
In 
the eastern states it is one of the most common of the large tree-like shrubs, growing usually on the 
northern British Columbia ; 
Louisiana, Texas, northern Mexico,? and along the mountain ranges of western North America. 
margins of the forest, generally in rich rather humid soil, and along highways and fence-rows; in 
southern Oregon and northern California it inhabits low valleys where, in rich moist soil in the neigh- 
borhood of streams, it attains a large size and arborescent habit; on the mountain ranges of the interior 
of the continent, where it is confined to elevated valleys, in southern California, and at the northern and 
southern limits of its range, it is a low shrub. 
The wood® of Prunus Virginiana is heavy, hard, and close-grained, although not strong; it con- 
tains numerous conspicuous medullary rays, and is light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood 
composed of fifteen to twenty layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry 
wood is 0.6951, a cubic foot weighing 43.32 pounds. 
1 A yellow-fruited form of Prunus Virginiana (var. leucocarpa, 
Watson, Bot. Gazette, xiii. 233) was found in Dedham, Massachu- 
setts, a few years ago; and plants with light-colored fruit are 
sometimes cultivated in Canadian gardens, and in those of northern 
Europe (J. G. Jack, Garden and Forest, v. 135). 
2 The western Choke Cherry has usually been considered a spe- 
cies. Extreme forms, especially those of the mid-continental re- 
gions, vary slightly from the eastern plant in the shape of their 
leaves, which are more often rounded or subcordate than cuneate 
at the base, and are sometimes pale on the lower surface, in their 
more abundant and persistent pubescence, and their greater thick- 
ness and consistency. It is not easy, however, to find stable char- 
acters upon which to establish even a geographical variety ; for 
the extreme forms pass insensibly one into the other, showing the 
gradual influence of a dry climate in increasing the thickness and 
the hairy covering of leaves. The synonymy of the western plant 
is as follows : — 
Prunus demissa, Walpers, Rep. ii. 10.— Dietrich, Syn. iii. 43. — 
Bentham, Pl. Hartweg. 307.— Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 
63.— Watson, King’s Rep. v. 80.— Rothrock, Pl. Wheeler, 37. — 
Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal. i. 167.— Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 
125.— Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U.S. ix. 69.— 
Greene, FV. Francis. 51.—T. 8. Brandegee, Zod, ii. 157. — Bessey, 
Bull. Agric. Exper. Stat. Nebraska, iv. art. iv. 18. 
Cerasus serotina, Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 169 (in part). 
Cerasus demissa, Nuttall ; Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 411. — 
Torrey, Pacific R. R. Rep. iv. 88.— Newberry, Pacific R. R. Rep. 
vi. 73. — Cooper, Pacific R. R. Rep. xii. pt. ii. 59. 
Padus demissa, Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. iii. 87. 
Prunus Virginiana, var. demissa, Torrey, Bot. Wilkes ona 
Exped. 284.— Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 381. 
8 Hooker f. Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 290 (Distribution Arctic Pl.). 
4 Macoun, Cat. Can. Pi. i. 125. 
5 Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 368. 
® The specimen of wood tested in the United States Census in- 
vestigation was taken from a tree grown in southern Oregon. 
