IIandkook of Tkees of the Xoktiim-x 



KS AND ('a.XAI 



Thi3 is a small northern tree, occasionally 

 under most favorable conditions, attaining the 

 height of 25 or 30 ft. witli trunk to 8 or 

 exceptionally 12 inches in diameter, and is com- 

 monly a tall shrub. It inluibits rich well- 

 drained soil along tlie borders of forests, par- 

 tially cleared huul and fence rows, where its 

 peculiar habit of ramification easily distin- 

 guishes it from its associates. It puts out 

 horizontal and upward inclined strightish 

 branches witii many upturned branchlets on the 

 upper side and but few if any beneath. 

 This feature is best seen when the tree is leaf- 

 less and it is then quite as interesting an ob- 

 ject as in summer, when it is conspicuous on 

 account of its flat sprays of foliage inter- 

 spersed with clusters of white flowers, or later 

 red-stemmed clusters of blue berries. 



The wood is heavy, a cubic foot weighing 



41.73 lbs., hard and verj' close-grained, adapted 



to use in turnery, etc.i 



Lcarcft mostly alternate and elusfered at the 

 ends of the branchlets, ovate to oval, .'!-") in. long, 

 wedge-shaped or somewhat rounded at base, long- 

 acuminate, obscurely crenulate, pale tomentose at 

 first, but at maturity thin, dark green and glab- 

 rous or nearly so above, pale and apprcssed pubes- 

 cent beneath, with prominent arcuate veins ; 

 petioles slender, pubescent. Floirirs (May-.Tune» 

 creamy white, about hi in. long in loose com- 

 pound terminal cymes ; petals narrow, rounded at 

 apex and refiexed. Fruit a subglobose blue drupe, 

 i/ii in. in diameter, depressed at apex, tijjped wit'i 

 the remnant of the style, in loose red-stemmed 

 clusters : flesh thin and bitter and short ovoid 

 somewhat pointed 2-celled thick-walled nutlet with 

 many longitudinal grooves. 



1. A. W., IV, 87. 



