ROSACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 129 
or sometimes nearly entire below the middle, coated at first on the lower surface with thick white 
The flowers, which 
are produced in shorter racemes on hairy pedicels, are smaller, with pubescent calyces, their lobes being 
tomentum, and at maturity pale and more or less pubescent on the lower surface. 
densely tomentose on the inner surface, and narrower strap-shaped petals usually less than half an inch 
long. This variety is found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where, however, it is not common, 
and is abundant in Quebec and Ontario, extending northward to the valley of the Mackenzie River in 
latitude 65° ;* 
tains to Virginia and westward to Minnesota and Missouri, and occasionally occurs, much reduced in 
size, in the southern coast region from Bluffton, South Carolina, to the shores of the Bay of Mobile. 
Amelanchier Canadensis, var. obovalis, grows usually on the borders of streams and swamps in 
it is common in the northeastern states, ranging southward along the Alleghany Moun- 
low wet soil, and sometimes on high rocky slopes and ridges, where it is often a small shrub producing 
fruit when only a foot or two high. In the situations which it selects, and in the shape and covering 
of its leaves, it is usually very distinct from the upland form, but the two are connected by intermediate 
forms growing in intermediate situations which make it difficult to find constant characters upon which 
to establish a second species. 
The fruit of the tomentose form is rather more juicy and of better flavor than that of the upland 
tree; and of late years American pomologists have paid some attention to the cultivation and improve- 
ment of a large-fruited variety originally obtained from Iowa, Minnesota, and Manitoba.’ 
Amelanchier Canadensis, var. spicata,* is a variety with broader obovate sometimes suborbicular 
leaves which is common in the northern states, where it usually grows as a low shrub, but occasionally 
rises to a height of fifteen or twenty feet. 
The earliest account* of Amelanchier Canadensis is that of Clayton,> who also distinguished the 
It was first cultivated in Europe in 1746 by the Duke of Argyll.” 
Amelanchier Canadensis is a beautiful object in early spring when its large white flowers unfold 
tomentose variety.° 
with the red or with the silvery white leaves of the different varieties, and its beauty at this time is 
heightened by its brilliant silky bud-scales and bracts. As a fruit-tree, although the birds devour the 
fruit as fast as it ripens, it deserves more attention than it has yet received. 
1 Richardson, Arctic Searching Exped. ii. 294. —Macoun, Cat. 
Can. Pl.i. 149. 
2 Am. Agric. xxx. 144.— Rep. Iowa Hort. Soc. xii. 203. — Gar- 
deners’ Monthly, xx. 141, 186, 306. 
8 Amelanchier Canadensis, var. spicata. 
Torrey, Fl. N. Y. i.225.— Chapman, FT. 129. — Watson & Coul- 
ter, Gray’s Man. ed. 6, 167. 
Amelanchier rotundifolia, Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. iii. 146 (not 
Du Mont de Courset). 
4 It was probably one of the forms of Amelanchier Canadensis 
Crategus spicata, Lamarck, Dict. i. 84. — Desfontaines, Hist. 
Arb. ii. 148.— Nouveau Duhamel, iv. 132.— Poiret, Lam. Dict. 
Suppl. i. 192. 
Pyrus ovalis, Willdenow, Berl. Baumz. 259; Spec. ii. pt. ii. 
1014. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 340. 
Mespilus Canadensis, var. rotundifolia, Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 
291. 
Amelanchier ovalis, Borkt Handb. Forstbot. ii. 1259. — 
Du Mont de Courset, Bot. Cult. ed. 2, v. 459.— Lindley, Trans. 
Linn. Soc. xiii. 100. — De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 635. — Hooker, FV. 
Bor.-Am. i. 202 (exel. var.). — Don, Gen. Syst. ii. 604 (excl. var.). 
—Spach, Hist. Veg. ii. 85. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 876, f. 632. 
Aronia ovalis, Persoon, Syn. ii. 40. — Elliott, Sk. i. 558. 
Amelanchier Canadensis, var. 1 , Torrey & Gray, Fi. 
N. Am. i. 473.— Walpers, Rep. ii. 55.— Dietrich, Syn. 158.— 
yy PPA 
which John Mason, writing of Newfoundland in 1620, calls a Peare 
in this passage: “The Countrie fruites wild, are cherries small, 
whole groaues of them, Filberds good, a small pleasant fruite, 
called a Peare, Damaske Roses single very sweet, Grease Straw- 
tleberries with abound of Rasb 
Gooseberries somewhat better than ours in England, all which 
replanted would be much inlarged.” (A Brief Discourse of the 
Newfoundland [Royal Letters, Charters, and Tracts relating to the 
Colonization of New Scotland, 1621-1638].) 
5 Mespilus inermis, foliis subtus glabris obverse ovatis, Fl. Virgin. 
54.— Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, ii. 15. 
6 Mespilus inermis, folio ovato oblongis, serratis, subtus tomentosis, 
Fl. Virgin. 55. 
7 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ii. 173.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 874, £. 627- 
629, t. 
berries, and H. and 
