620 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



This small cherry is one of the means by which damage by forest 

 fires is repaired. The tree is of little value for lumber or even for fuel ; 

 but it acts as a nurse tree that is, it shelters and protects the seedlings 

 of other species until they obtain a start. By the time the cherry trees 

 die, the seedlings which they have nursed are able to take care of them- 

 selves, and a young forest of valuable species is established. 



Except in this indirect way, the wild red cherry is of little use to 

 man. The wood is soft, light, and of pleasing color, but trees are nearly 

 always too small to be worked into useful articles. About the only 

 industry of which there is any record, which draws supplies from this 

 source, is the manufacture of pipe stems. The straight, slender, bright- 

 barked branches are cut into requisite lengths and bored endwise, and 

 serve for stems of cheap pipes, and occasionally for those more expensive. 

 The bark, like that of most cherries, is marked by dark bands running 

 part way round the stems. These are known as lenticels, and exist in 

 the bark of most trees, but they are usually less conspicuous in others 

 than in cherry. It is this characteristic marking which gives the cherry 

 pipe stem its value. 



Wild red cherry blooms from May to July, depending on latitude 

 and elevation, and the fruit ripens from July to September. The cherries 

 hang in bunches, are bright red, quite sour, and the seed is the largest 

 part. They are occasionally made into jelly, wine, and form the basis 

 of certain cough syrups. 



WEST INDIA CHERRY (Prunus sphcerocarpa) grows near the shores 

 of Biscayne bay, Florida. It there blooms in November and the fruit 

 ripens the next spring. The tree attains a height of from twenty-five 

 to thirty feet, and a diameter of five or six inches. When grown in the 

 open at Miami, Florida, it is larger, and is much liked as an ornament. 

 The thin, smooth bark is brown, tinged with red, and is marked by large 

 conspicuous lenticels. The wood is hard and light, and of light clear 

 red color. It is too scarce to be of much importance, but paper knives, 

 napkin rings, and other novelties made of it are sold in souvenir stores 

 in southern Florida. Its range extends south to Brazil. 



WILLOWLEAF CHERRY (Prunus solicifolia) is a small tree, also 

 called Mexican cherry, is more common south of the United States than 

 in this country, ranging as far south as Peru. It is found on some of the 

 mountains of southern New Mexico and Arizona. 



LAUREL CHERRY (Prunus caroliniana) is a southern species which 

 sticks close to the coast in most of its range from South Carolina to 

 Texas. It has many names, among them wild peach, wild orange, mock 

 orange, evergreen cherry, mock olive, and Carolina cherry. Leaves 

 hang two years, and the fruit remains nearly one. The latter is black 



