ROSACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. Any) 
annual growth, but grows darker with exposure to the air. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry 
wood is 0.5822, a cubic foot weighing 36.28 pounds; the wood of no other North American tree is 
better colored or more valuable for cabinet-making and the fine interior finish of houses, and the great 
demand for it for these purposes has caused the destruction of the largest and best trees in all parts of 
the country. 
The bark of the Wild Cherry, which contains the bitter principle * peculiar to plants of this genus, 
yields hydrocyanie acid when steeped in cold water, and, especially that of the branches and roots, is 
much employed in medicine for infusions, syrups, and fluid extracts, which are used as tonics and seda- 
tives in the treatment of pulmonary consumption and nervous debility? The ripe fruit is used domesti- 
cally to flavor alcoholic liquors; and under the name of capulinos it is sold in the markets of Mexico 
and Central America, where it is eaten fresh or preserved, and is fermented and manufactured into 
a liquor similar to kirschwasser.* 
The records of several early voyagers to the New World mention the Wild Cherry,‘ and, being 
established in English gardens before 1629, as John Parkinson records in his Paradisi in Sole Paradi- 
sus terrestris, it was one of the first American trees cultivated in Europe.® 
With its tall massive trunk, lustrous foliage, abundant and graceful inflorescence, and handsome 
fruit, the Wild Cherry is one of the stateliest and most beautiful trees of the eastern woods; and its 
hardiness and ability to thrive under varied climatic conditions and in different soils, its rapid growth, 
and the value of the timber it produces, commend it to the attention of the planters of forests. 
1 Procter, Am. Jour. Pharm. iv. 197. — Perot, Am. Jour. Pharm. 
xxiv. 750. 
? B.S. Barton, Coll. ed. 3, 11, pt. ii. 51.— Griffith, Med. Bot. 
288. — Carson, Med. Bot. i. 41, t. 35.— Bentley, Pharm. Jour. v. 
97.—Gobley, Jour. Pharm. et Chim. xv. 40.—Guibourt, Hist. 
Drog. ed. 7. iti. 317.— Flickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 
224.— U. S. Dispens. ed. 14, 749. — Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 1177. — 
Bentley & Trimen, Med. Pl. ii. 97, t. 97. — Laurence Johnson, 
Man. Med. Bot. N. A. 135, £. 122. —Maisch, Organic Mat. Med. ed. 
4, 184. 
8 Hamelin, Rev. Hort. 1884, 111. 
4 «Tt naturally yeelds mulberry-trees, cherry-trees, vines aboun- 
dance ; goosberyes, strawberyes, hurtleberyes, respesses.”’ (A Re- 
latyon of the discovery of our river from James Forte into the Maine ; 
made by Capt. Christopher Newport, and seveerely written and observed 
by a gentleman of the colony. Archeologia Americana, iv. 61 [1607].) 
De Capolin, seu Ceraso dulci Indica, Francisco Hernandez, Hist. 
Pi. Nov. Hisp. ed. Madrid, 1790, ii. lib. vi. cap. Lxxviii. 
De Capolin seu ceraso dulci, Nieremberg, Hist. Nat. lib. xv. cap. 
xxi. 343 (cum icone, p. 344). 
“The indigenous fruits consist . . . of mulberries, plums, but 
not many, medlars, wild cherries.” (Representation from New- 
Nether-Land, concerning the Situation, Fruitfulness, and poor Condition 
of the same. English ed. Henry C. Murphy, 15.) 
“ Wild Cherry, they grow in clusters like Grapes, of the same 
bigness, blackish red when ripe, and of a harsh taste.” (Josselyn, 
New England’s Rarities, 61.) 
5 Laurea Cerasus, sive laurus Virginiana, the Virginian Bay or 
Cherry Bay, 599, t., £. 6. 
Cerasus racemosa, foliis Amygdalinis, Americana, Plukenet, Phyt. t. 
158, £.4; Alm. Bot. 95. 
Cerasus sylvestris, fructu nigricante in racemis longis pendulis Phyto- 
lacce: instar congestis, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 54,— Royen, Fi. Leyd. 
Prodr. 537. — Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, i. 148. 
® Sargent, Rep. Sec. Board Agric. Mass. xxv. 269. — Naudin, Man- 
uel de l’ Acclimateur, 198. 
