132 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACER. 
inch to nearly an inch in diameter. The seeds are an eighth of an inch long, with a lustrous red-brown 
coat.’ 
Amelanchier alnifolia is distributed from the valley of the Yukon River in latitude 62° 45’ 
north,’ southward through the coast ranges of northeastern America and on the mountain ranges of 
the western and interior parts of the continent, extending in California to the southern boundary of the 
state, and eastward through British Columbia, the Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, to the western shores 
of Lake Superior,’ and to northern Michigan, Nebraska,’ and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado’ and 
New Mexico.° 
The wood of Amelanchier alnifolia is heavy, hard, and close-grained ; it is light brown and con- 
tains numerous obscure medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.8262, a 
cubic foot weighing 51.55 pounds. 
The nutritious and abundant fruit of the Service Berry is an important article of food with the 
Indians of western America, who gather and dry it in large quantities.’ 
Amelanchier alnifolia attains its largest size and occasionally assumes the habit of a tree on the 
islands and rich bottom-lands of the lower Columbia River and on the small prairies which occur in 
Washington in the neighborhood of Puget Sound, where it grows in gravelly soil near the borders of 
small ponds, and often forms thickets of considerable extent, or is associated with the Oregon Haw- 
thorn, the Crab-apple, and the Choke Cherry. In the interior it is confined to high elevations, in Cali- 
fornia frequently ascending ten thousand feet above the level of the ocean, sometimes near the borders 
of streams or alpine meadows, or often on high hillsides where, as a low shrub, it forms thickets which 
cover areas several hundred acres in extent. 
Amelanchier alnifolia was noticed early in this century by the party of explorers who, under the 
leadership of Lewis and Clark, first crossed North America ;* and it was introduced into cultivation by 
David Douglas who, in 1826, sent seeds to the London Horticultural Society. In the Arnold Arbore- 
tum it produces fruit every year. 
1 In the different parts of the immense territory over which it is 
distributed Amelanchier alnifolia varies not only in size and habit, 
but in the texture and color of the leaves, in the amount and char- 
acter of the pubescence of the calyx, and in the size of the flowers ; 
at high elevations in the dry interior its foliage, like that of many 
plants in these regions, is pale green on both sides, and the bark of 
the branches and stems is much lighter than on plants which have 
grown in the more humid climate of the coast. The extreme 
forms of this species, however, are connected by intermediate 
forms, and it is not probable that western America contains more 
than a single species of Amelanchier, and this, at the extreme east- 
ern limits of its range, is not always easily distinguished from some 
of the broad-leaved forms of Amelanchier Canadensis of the eastern 
states. 
2 Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 148. 
8 Macoun, l. c. 522. 
4 Bessey, Bull. Agric. Exper. Stat. Nebraska, iv. art. iv. 20. 
5 Coulter, Man. Rocky Mt. Bot. 89. 
® Gray, Mem. Am. Acad. n. ser. iv. 42 (Pl. Fendler.). 
7 «Tn a great number of localities service-berries are stored for 
winter use by the Indians. They are gathered where most abun- 
dant, crushed and made into a paste which is spread out on bark 
or stones in the sun until it is thoroughly dried. It is then put in 
sacks, and during the winter serves to give variety to their diet 
which otherwise consists of flesh or dried fish.” (Newberry, Food 
and Fibre Plants of the North American Indians, Popular Science 
Monthly, xxii. 43. See, also, R. Brown (Campst.), Trans. Bot. Soc. 
Edinburgh, ix. 384.) 
8 History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis 
and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Moun- 
tains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, ii. 505. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pirate CXCVI. AMELANCHIER ALNIFOLIA. 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
1 
2. Vertical section of a flower, the ends of the petals removed, enlarged. 
3. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
. An embryo, much magnified. 
4. 
5. A seed, natural size. 
6. 
th 
. A winter branchlet, natural size. 
