616 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



small, and bruised branches emit a disagreeable odor; leaves contain prussic acid, and 

 when partly withered, they are poisonous to cattle. The trunks are nearly always 

 too small for commercial purposes, and are apt to be affected with a fungous disease 

 known as black knot. 



WESTERN CHOKE CHERRY (Prunus demissa) grows from the Rocky Mountains 

 to the Pacific in the United States. It is often regarded as the western form of choke 

 cherry, but it has more palatable fruit, and trees are a little larger, while trunks are 

 so crooked that no user of wood cares to have anything to do with them. The wood 

 is weak, but is hard and heavy. 



BITTER CHERRY (Prunus emarginata) belongs to the far West, and is found from 

 British Columbia to southern California. In size it ranges from a low shrub to a tree 

 a foot in diameter and forty feet high. The largest sizes are found in western Wash- 

 ington and Oregon. The wood is soft and brittle, brown streaked with green. It is 

 not known that any attempt has been made to put the wood of this tree to any useful 

 purpose. The bark and the leaves are exceedingly bitter. Fruit ripens from June 

 to August, depending on region and elevation, and it is from one-fourth to one-half 

 inch in diameter, black, and intensely bitter. 



HOLLYLEAF CHERRY (Prunus ilicifolia) is a California species growing in the 

 bottoms of canyons from San Francisco bay to the Mexican line. It is rarely more 

 than thirty feet high, but has a large trunk, sometimes two feet in diameter. The 

 wood is heavy, hard, and strong, and it ought to be valuable in the manufacture of 

 small articles, but fuel is the only use reported for it. The fruit is insipid, and ripens 

 late in autumn. The foliage is much admired and has led to the planting of the 

 species for ornamental purposes. 



