126 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACER, 
China,* while two belong to the flora of eastern and one to that of western America. Two of the 
American species attain the size of small trees; the third? is a shrub of the northern and alpine parts 
of eastern America. The Old World species are shrubs. 
The fruit of all the species is more or less succulent and edible, and the wood produced by the 
American arborescent species is strong, hard, and close-grained. The large white flowers, appearing 
before or coetaneous with the leaves, give the different species great beauty in very early spring, and 
make them desirable garden plants. 
The American species of Amelanchier do not suffer seriously from the attacks of insects, although 
they are subject to many of the fungal diseases which affect Pyrus and Crategus.! 
The generic name is derived from Amelancier, the popular name of the European species in 
Savoy. 
1 Amelanchier Asiatica, Walpers, Rep. ii. 55.— Roemer, Fam. Amelanchier sanguinea, Decaisne, Nouv. Arch. Mus. x. 136 (not 
Nat. Syn. iii. 144. — Koch, Dendr. i. 180. De Candolle nor Lindley). ; 
Aronia Asiatica, Siebold & Zucearini, Fl. Jap. i. 87, t. 42. 8 The same insects which injure Pyrus in North America are also 
Amelanchier Canadensis, var. Japonica, Miquel, Prol. Fl. Jap. found on the different species of Amelanchier ; and Leaf-miners 
229.—Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 142.—Maxi- like Nepticula amelanchierella, Clemens, and Ornix quadripunctella, 
mowicez, Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, xix. 175 (Mél. Biol. ix. Clemens, may be peculiar to them. 
174). 4 A striking fungus attacks the leaves and young branches of 
2 Amelanchier oligocarpa, Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. iii. 145.— Amelanchier Canadensis in the east, and of Amelanchier alnifolia in 
Watson, Garden and Forest, i. 245, f. 41.— Watson & Coulter, the west, covering them at first with an olive-colored down which 
Gray’s Man. ed. 6, 167. afterwards changes to a black crenulated surface. Many leaves on 
Mespilus Canadensis, var. oligocarpa, Michaux, Fl. Bor-Am. i. certain branches are attacked simultaneously, and the so-called 
291. bird’s-nest distortions are produced. This fungus, which belongs 
Amelanchier ? sanguinea, De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 633 (in part). to the order Pyrenomycetes, was first called Spheria Collinsii by 
Amelanchier Canadensis, var. oligocarpa, Torrey & Gray, Fl..N. Schweinitz, and by other authors has been referred to Dimerospo- 
Am. i. 474, — Torrey, Fl. N. Y. i. 226. — Gray, Man. 131. rium, Lasiospheria, and Plowrightia. 
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES. 
Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong or oblong to broadly elliptical or suborbicular, acute or rounded at 
the apex, cordate orrounded atithebase... 2 69s 92. ss ee ee oll SAO ANADENGTSS 
Leaves broadly orbicular, obtuse, or rarely acute. . . ... =.=... +. +... ~~. ~. 2 A, ALNIFOLIA. 
