314 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



Minnesota common through the northern part of the state, ex- 

 tending south to Pine and Mille Lacs counties. 



Propagation. The species is erown from seeds and the varie- 

 ties by budding and grafting. The seeds may be gathered dur- 

 ing the autumn, stratified over winter and sown in the spring, 

 but seeds thus treated will seldom start until the second sea- 

 son. A better way is to put the seeds ten inches deep in a 

 hole, and cover with three inches of sand in the autumn. They 

 should remain in such a place uiitil a year irom the follow- 

 ing spring, when the berries will be thoroughly rotted and the 

 seeds may be sifted out from the pulp and sown. Thus treated, 

 they come up the season of planting. 



Properties of wood. Soft, light and weak, pale brown with 

 lighter colored sapwood. Specific gravity 0.5451; weight of 

 a cubic foot 33.97 pounds. 



Uses. The American Mountain Ash is used as an orna- 

 mental tree on account of its abundant bright colored fruit, but 

 is not so pretty in this respect as the European or Elderleaf 

 Mountain Ash. The trunk of the tree is liable to sunscald, 

 and when planted in exposed places it should be encouraged to 

 send up sprouts from the roots and from the lower parts of the 

 trunk. Treated in this way it forms a large shrub of great 

 value from an ornamental point of view, and is very hardy 

 even in exceedingly severe locations. The fruit is astringent. 

 It is used in some homeopathic and domestic remedies. The 

 wood is sometimes used as a veneer in cabinet work. 



Pyrus sambucifolia. Elderleaf Mountain Ash. 



Leaves odd-pinnate; leaflets seven to fifteen, oblong-ovate, 

 mostly obtuse. Flowers appear in July, in small dense pubes- 

 cent cymes. The fruit is globose, bright scarlet, and some- 

 times nearly a half inch in diameter. It is produced in dense 

 red-branched clusters, and remains on the tree into the winter. 

 A small tree that is often mistaken for Pyrus americana, from 

 which it is best distinguished by its smaller cymes, its larger 

 and later flowers and its more obtuse and broader leaflets. 



Distribution. It is found growing from southern Greenland 

 to Labrador and northern New England, along the northern 

 shores of the Great Lakes to Little Slave Lake, through the 



