1546 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PRUNUS SEROTINA, American Black Cherry 



Prunus serotina, Ehrhart, Beit. iii. 20 (1788); Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, ii. t. 97 

 (1880); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. iv. 45, t. 159 (1902), and Trees N. Amer. 524 (1905); Von 

 Schwerin, in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges. 1906, p. 1. 



Prunus virginiana, Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 3 (1768) (not Linnaeus). 



Cerasus serotina, Loiseleur, Nouv. Duham. v. 3 (18 12); Loudon, 1 Arb. el Prut. Brit. ii. 712 (1838). 



Cerasus virginiana, Michaux, PI. Bor. Amer. i. 285 (1803) (not Loiseleur); Loudon, 1 Arb. el Prut. 

 Brit. ii. 710 (1838). 



Padus serotina, Agardh, Theor. Syst. t. 14, f. 8 (1858); Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 643 (1906). 



A deciduous tree, attaining in America 100 ft. in height and 15 ft. in girth. 

 Bark, \ to f in. thick, broken on the surface into small irregular scaly plates. 

 Young branchlets glabrous. Leaves slightly coriaceous, about 3 to 4 in. long, and \\ 

 to 2 in. broad, obovate-oblong or elliptic, acuminate at the apex, tapering at the base ; 

 shining and glabrous above ; lower surface light green, with a dense band of rusty 

 pubescence on each side of the midrib, elsewhere glabrous ; regularly and sharply 

 glandular-serrate ; with one or two glands at the base of the leaf, or on the summit 

 of the glabrous petiole. 



Flowers in racemes, terminating short leafy branchlets ; axis and slender pedicels 

 glabrous ; calyx cup-shaped, with short ovate sepals, which persist on the ripe fruit ; 

 petals obovate, white. Fruit globose, slightly lobed, \ to \ in. in diameter, red 

 before ripening, almost black when ripe ; flesh dark purple, juicy ; stone obovate, 

 compressed, smooth, broadly ridged on the ventral suture. 



This species is often confused with P. virginiana, Linnaeus, a North American 

 shrub. The leaves of the latter are oval, cuspidate-acuminate, usually glabrous 

 beneath, with long pointed serrations ; and the inner bark of the branchlets has a 

 strong disagreeable odour, that of P. serotina being aromatic and agreeable. In 

 the former species the calyx is deciduous ; in the latter it is persistent on the fruit. 



Varieties 



I. This species is very variable in the wild state : and several geographical forms 

 have been distinguished, and ranked by American botanists as either varieties or 

 distinct species : 2 



1. Var. neomontana, Small, FL S.E. United States, 574 (1903). Leaves 

 coriaceous, very large, coarsely toothed, whitish beneath ; sepals pubescent. 

 Occurs on the higher summits of the Alleghany Mountains. 



2. Prunus Cuthbertii, Small, in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxviii. 290 (1901). 

 Branchlets, axis of the inflorescence, and pedicels pubescent. Leaves coriaceous. 

 A shrubby form, growing in rich sandy soil in Georgia. 



1 Loudon describes P. serotina under both C. virginiana and C. serotina ; and seems to have been unacquainted with 

 the true P. virginiana, Linnaeus. 



s Padus eximia, Small, Fl. S.E. United States, 573 (1903), a glabrous form with leaves delicately reticulate-veined 

 beneath, occurring in river valleys in southern Texas, can scarcely be distinguished from the type. 



