ROSACER,  - SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 43 
In Canada the fruit, which is gathered in great quantities and is sold in the markets of the large 
cities, is eaten by the French Canadians, and was formerly an important article of food among the 
northern Indians,' as well as among those inhabiting the western and central parts of the continent. 
Prunus Virginiana early attracted the attention of European colonists,’ although it does not 
appear to have been introduced into European gardens until the middle of the eighteenth century. 
The Choke Cherry is a handsome plant when it is covered with its abundant racemes of pure white 
flowers; but it is generally disfigured by the Black Knot, which makes it a dangerous neighbor to 
orchards of cultivated Plum-trees. 
1 Richardson, Arctic Searching Exped. ii. 190. throate wax horse with swallowing those red Bullies (as I may call 
* «The Cherrie trees yeeld great store of Cherries, which grow them), being little better in taste. English ordering may bring 
on clusters like grapes ; they be much smaller than our English them to be an English Cherrie, but yet they are as wilde as the 
Cherrie, nothing neare so good if they be not very ripe ; they so Indians.” (Wood, New England’s Prospect, pt. i. chap. 5, 18.) 
furre the mouth that the tongue will cleave to the roofe, and the 
