BLACK CHERRY: WILD CHERRY: Prunus 

 serotina 



IN most sections of our country people have been content 

 to call this tree by the above names mainly the first. In 

 two states, however, it has been given the name of Rum 

 Cherry, quite suggestive of the use to which the fruit is 

 now and then put in adding flavor to certain alcoholic 

 beverages. In the lumber trade it is designated as " Cherry," 

 and as it is the only species out of a half-dozen in this 

 country from which lumber is cut, there can be no 

 criticism. But the same cannot be said of the furniture 

 manufacturer who stains the several species of Birch and 

 palms them off as Cherry ; or, if his conscience rebels, will 

 give them the name of Cherry Birch. It is true that the 

 heartwood of old Black Birch trees much resembles in color 

 and appearance Black Cherry, and if the Birch did not 

 warp and spring when subjected to changes in humidity, 

 it would serve as a fair substitute. 



The natural range of Black Cherry covers quite the east- 

 ern half of the United States, practically all east of the 

 one hundredth degree of west longitude, but it is not 

 common along the coast region. It reaches its best develop- 

 ment along the northern portion of the Appalachian Moun- 

 tains. Probably the largest and best trees were found on 

 the slopes and along the streams of the Alleghanies. Trees 

 one hundred feet high and four or five feet in diameter 

 were often found there, although the average diameter of 

 mature trees did not much exceed two feet. Grown in the 

 open, it branches out low down, and, as years go on, large 

 specialized limbs are formed and the tree is practically worth- 

 less for lumber; but forest-grown, it shoots up a tall, 

 smooth, straight, and slightly tapering stem without limbs 

 for more than half its height. 



