ANGIOSPERM TREES 



299 



largest and best-developed sycamores are found in the Ohio and 

 Mississippi river basins. The wood is hard, heavy, weak, and 

 light reddish brown with pale yellow sap wood, having a grain 

 that is often interlocked and difficult to split. Sycamore is occa- 

 sionally planted as an ornamental, but its prolific seed habit 

 causes some discrimination against it in this capacity. 



The Cherries 



The CHERRIES (Prunus) include over twenty species that are 

 found in our forests. They have alternate, simple leaves which 

 vary in shape from lance-shaped to oval, with finely toothed 

 margins (fig. 216). The twigs have a pronounced bitter taste and 

 possess several-scaled terminal buds. The small white flowers 

 give rise to familiar small fleshy stone fruits. The bark is reddish 

 brown to black, often with con- 

 spicuous lenticels which are light 

 colored and horizontally elon- 

 gated like the birches. 



Black cherry is the only wild 

 cherry to be considered as a tim- 

 ber species, ranging throughout 

 the entire eastern half of the 

 United States and southern 

 Canada. It is ordinarily a tree of 

 medium size, sometimes reaching 

 a maximum of one hundred by 

 five feet on rich, moist soils where 

 it occurs mixed with other hard- 

 wood species. Growth is very rapid 

 under favorable conditions and an 

 age of two hundred years is prob- 

 ably reached by the old growth 

 trees. Although not outstanding with regard to quantity of wood 

 produced, black cherry is one of the most valuable of the eastern 

 hardwoods because of the high ornamental value of its wood, 

 which is moderately hard and heavy, strong and close grained, 

 consisting of a light to dark reddish brown heartwood and a 

 thin yellow sapwood. 



Fig. 216. — Cherry trees have 

 lance-shaped or oval leaves and 

 attractive flowers; the fruits are 

 often in clusters. 



