228 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



some of them may be the European bird cherry, 

 Prunus Padus, which is distinguished from the choke 

 cherry with difficulty, and which is often grown here 

 for ornament. The following extracts show to what 

 extent these fruits have yet appealed to the culti- 

 vator : 



THE CHOKE CHERRY IN CULTIVATION.* Recent notes in 

 "Garden and Forest," as well as other sources of information, 

 seem to indicate that the choke cherry is unknown to cultivation. 

 Such is not the fact, although its use is apparently limited and 

 local. One of the earliest recollections of my boyhood has to do 

 with two or three choke cherry trees beyond the garden in the 

 edge of the old orchard, and I can almost feel their pucker yet, 

 and I recall the feeling of danger when some older companion 

 would utter the grave warning never to drink milk after eating 

 choke cherries. These could hardly be called cultivated choke 

 cherries, however, and the trees were simply spared where they 

 had chanced to spring up. 



In distinct contrast with this puckering little fruit I call to 

 mind another kind, always spoken of as the "tame" choke cherry. 

 The merits of this fruit may have seemed greater than the reality, 

 since none of it was to be found on our own farm. Still, any boy 

 would call this fruit good, and when prepared for the table, boys 

 still call it good, no matter what may be their age. The botanical 

 characters of the tree appear to be the same as those of the wild 

 choke cherry, Prunus Firginiana, though the tree reaches a larger 

 size than that commonly reached by the shrubs along the fence 

 rows. In this cultivated form the trunk often reaches a diameter 

 of from four to six inches, and the tree attains a height of fifteen 

 to twenty feet. 



The fruit is much larger than in any wild forms which I have 

 seen, perhaps ranging from three-eighths to half an inch in 

 diameter. It also has much less astringency, and whatever 

 remains of this entirely disappears with cooking. The fruit is 

 much used, both for pies and sauce, and is also canned for winter 

 use. Any criticism as to its quality in these forms would be that 



*Fred W. Card, Garden and Forest, x. 47 (1897). 



