Handbook of TrelEs 



TIIK XoKTlIKK'X StATKS .VXD TaXADA. 



4T 



The Northern Nanny-bprry is at best a small 

 tree, only under most favorable conditions at- 

 taining the height of 25 or 30 ft., with trunk 

 S or 10 in. in diamctor, and is commonly only 

 a shnil). When isolated from other tnvs it 

 develojjs a wide rounded top with tough tortu- 

 ous branches. The bark of trunk is of a dark- 

 brown color and fissured into prominent ridge-;, 

 which are more or less divided by transvers(! 

 fissures. 



It iiiliahits the banks of streams, margins of 

 swamps and low rich bottom-lands, or 

 sparingly hill-sides where there is an abun 

 dance of moisture, and in these localities, in 

 the month of .May, its lustrous green leaves 

 and large clusters of small white flowers arc 

 sure to elicit admiration from even the casual 

 observer. Its blue-black fruit in autumn pre 

 sents a new phase of beauty, which the country 

 children consider as also of utility, for they 

 delight in eating the sweet fruit. It is then 

 that the appropriateness of its names — 11 //(/ 

 Raisin Tier and Sweet-berry — is apparent. 



The wood is fine-grained, hard and heavj', a 



cubic foot weighing 45.51 lbs., and the yellow 



ish brown heart- wood is of very disagreeable 



and remarkably persistent odor, suggestive of 



the odor of rancid butter. 



Lrarrs ovate to oval, 2V2 to ."> in. lonj,'. mostly 

 rounded at base and acuminate at apex, sharply 

 serrate, at maturity lustrous dark .urccn above, 

 yellowish liTccii and with minute lilack dots he- 

 neath : petioles wide, .grooved al)(iv<'. the lower- 

 most wavy margined, riifoiis-tomentose. Flowers 

 14 in. broad in several-rayed cymes, 3-.") in. across. 

 Fruit ripe in September, oblong, on drooping 

 pedicels in red stemmed clusters with thick blue- 

 black glaucous skin : stone very flat oval or 

 orbicular. 



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