AMORPHA AMELANCHIEK. 217 



AMORPHA. 



Indigo Shrub. 



Amorpha, from Greek words denoting- the deformity of the 

 corolla. 



Amorpha futicosa. Bastard Indigo. This shrub is a 

 native of South Carolina, and once used in that State as an 

 indigo plant, but now neglected. It is an ornamental shrub, 

 about six feet high, with spikes of purplish flowers in July. It 

 is of easy cultivation, and propagated by seeds or cuttings. 



AMELANCHIER. 



Shad Bush. 



This is a genus of ornamental shrubs, or small trees, of which 

 one or two species are conspicuous ornaments of our woods and 

 swamps in May. Mr. Emerson, in his " Trees of Massachu- 

 setts," says, that " There are two remarkable distinct varieties of 

 A. canadensis, or Swamp Pyrus, of Torrey and Gray, found in 

 Massachusetts. Both are called the Shad Bush, from flower- 

 ing when the shad begin to ascend the streams. The first is 

 called, 



" A. botryapium, or June Berry. This is a small, grace- 

 ful tree, from fifteen to twenty feet high, with a few slender, 

 distant branches, usually growing in upland woods. It has 

 large white flowers, in pendulous racemes, expanding about 

 the first of May, or a little later, according to the season, just 

 as the leaves are beginning to open, with small, purple or faint 

 crimson bracts at the base of the partial flower-stalks, and often 

 near the flowers. The union of the crimson or purple of the 

 scales and stipules with the pure white flowers, and the glossy, 

 silken, scattering pairs of the opening leaves, give delicate 

 beauty to this early, welcome promise of the woods. 



"A. ovalis. Swamp Sugar Pear. This is a smaller tree 

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