JUNCUS 



JUNEBERRY 



1725 



cyme open: culm medium, usually coarsely striate 

 at least when drv: basal sheaths usually dark. Var. 

 vittatus, Buch. (J. effiisus var. aitreo-striatus, Hort. J. 

 conglomerctus var. variegatus, Hort.). Foliage striped 

 with yellow. Var. 

 spiralis, Hort. Fig. 

 2021. A curious form 

 with sts. spirally 

 twisted Uke a cork- 

 screw. Gt. 54, p. 406. 



AA. »S(. bearing terete 

 Ivs.: cyme ter- 

 minal, open, but 

 fls. borne in 

 heads at end of 

 branches. 

 canadensis, Gay. 



Sts. lH-3 ft. high, 



tall and coarse : heads 



numerous; stamens 



3: seeds long-tailed 



at each end. N. 



Anaer. 



nodosus, Linn. Sts. 

 lower, J 2-1 J 2 ft. high: 

 heads few; stamens 

 6 : seeds without tails. 

 N. Amer. — May be 

 used for gravelly 

 borders of pools. 



J. acuminiitua, Michs., 

 and other species may be 

 used for water-gardeus. — 

 J. zebrinus, Hort.=.Scir- 

 p u a TabernEemontanus 

 var. zebrinua. 



K. M. WiEGAND. 



JUNEBERRY. 



Fig. 2022. Fruits 

 of species of Amelan- 

 chier. 



The fruits of 

 some twenty-five or 

 thirty species of 

 Amelanchier are edible, those of several species being 

 especially juicy, sweet and refreshing. Under the 

 names juneberry, shad-bush, service-berry, sugar-pear 

 and grape-pear, or their equivalents in other languages, 

 the wild fruits are used for food in all parts of the North 

 Temperate Zone. The product of one or another of the 

 species plays an important part in the diet of North 

 American Indians, who make use of the berries both 

 fresh and dried. So, also, juneberries have been a 

 source of food-supply to explorers, prospectors and 

 pioneers, who testify to their value as nourishing 

 esculents and pleasing dessert fruits. Juneberries are 

 as yet little used where they must compete with other 

 fruits, although they have many qualities to commend 

 them for domestication. 



The fruit of the juneberry is a smaU pome or apple, 

 usually with five cells each more or less completely 

 divided into two parts so that there appear to be ten 

 cells. The seeds are small and thin-shelled, varj-ing 

 in number from five to ten. The pomes of some species 

 are no larger than a pea, while in the best strains of 

 other species they attain the size of a small crab-apple. 

 They vary in color from dark red to a purplish blue or 

 black and all have more or less bloom. The fruits 

 resemble somewhat the pomes of the hawthorn, for 

 which they are often mistaken. The juneberrj', how- 

 ever, is superior to the more common hawthorn as a 

 food product because the flesh is greater in quantity 

 and is not so dry and mealy, the flavor is sprightlier 

 and the seeds are fewer, smaller and thinner-shelled. 

 The several juneberries are quite as variable in the 



2020. Commoa rush, Juncus efFu- 

 sus. The flower-ciuster, a, is natural 

 size. The single flower, b, is enlarged. 



character of their fruits, either within or between 

 species, as are other members of the rose family to 

 which Amelanchier belongs — sufficiently variable to 

 suggest high potentialities in the domestication of the 

 best of the wild species. 



Juneberries differ much in the character of the plants. 

 Some species are dwarf shrubs with many stems, while 

 others are small trees with straight, slender trunks, 

 the largest of which attain a height of 40 feet and a 

 diameter of 8 or 10 inches. All of the species are vigor- 

 ous and the American juneberries are hardy, at least 

 two of them giving promise of making most desirable 

 domesticated plants in regions too cold for any or but 

 few other fruits. Juneberries are easily transplanted 

 and respond to culture as readily as any other species 

 of the rose famUy. In the garden, they thrive under the 

 same care as that given the apple or pear. Insects and 

 fungous troubles are not particularly apparent in wild 

 species but il is probable that under artificial conditions 

 juneberries would suffer from about the same insects 

 and fungi that attack other pomes. Birds, especially 

 the robin, take heavj- toll and would prove troublesome 

 to cultivated plants. The genus shows wide adaptation 

 to soils and moisture conditions, there being few locali- 

 ties in temperate regions where other fruits are grown 

 upon which some one or several of the juneberries 

 w'ould not thrive. 



All of the plants in this genus, whether shrubs or 

 trees, have value as ornamentals. The common june- 

 berry of eastern America is a particularly beautiful 

 plant in early spring, bearing large white flowers in 

 profusion, which are well set off by the opening foli- 

 age and bright silky bud-scales and bracts. The trees 

 are attractive ornamentals in fruit though the east- 

 ern juneberrj' is often infertile and sets few or no 

 pomes. Trained as a tree or as a many-stemmed shrub, 

 the several juneberries are all desirable lawn and park 

 ornamentals. 



From time to time strains of wild species have been 

 brought under cultivation, some of which have been 

 named and sparingly disseminated by nurserj-men. So 

 far all of the cultivated varieties have come from the 

 bush-like species, most of them said to be from A. alni- 

 folia. One of the first named varieties was Success, a 

 dwarf strain probably of A. canadensis, introduced by 

 H. E. V'an Deman, then of Kansas, about 1878; this 

 variety seems to be no longer cultivated. Several 

 western nurser3-men now offer strains of dwarfs under 

 the names Improved Dwarf Juneberry, Dwarf Moun- 

 tain Juneberry, and Western Huckleberry. So far as 



2021. Juncus effusus var. spiralis. 



their historj- can be learned, all these named varieties 

 are selected strains from wild plants, no one as yet 

 having set out to breed and improve juneberries. There 

 are many distinct forms in the wild, some of them 

 supposed to be natural hybrids, offering opportunities 

 for selection in the amelioration of the species for the 

 garden. There is no reason to believe that the species 

 will not hybridize as freely as other members of the rose 

 family. All looks to be favorable for the domestica- 



