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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



abundant or as widely distributed as 

 the black cherry. 



Two old friends which flower in June 

 are the holly and persimmon. The 

 former bears small white blossoms, soon 

 setting fruit and developing a green 

 berry which turns the characteristic 



Photo by American Museum of Natural History. 



The Wild Plum. 

 these are charming white blossoms readily distinguished 



glossy scarlet late in the fall, and is, 

 alas! too much sought after around 

 Christmas time. The persimmon blos- 

 soms are yellow, both sterile and fertile, 

 shaped like tiny urns. The fertile 

 flowers are the solitary ones. The 

 fruit is well known to every country boy 

 who ever roamed the woods. Translu- 

 cent orange in color, with a purplish 



sheen, it is good to look at in the fall, but 

 not to eat until late in November when 

 the frost has had a chance to mellow it. 

 By that time the persimmon is almost 

 black in color and is delicious in flavor. 

 One of the delights of 'cooning of a 

 moonlit night is not only the following 

 hounds and the excitement of 

 the chase but the fine harvest 

 of persimmons certain to be 

 gathered in any good 'coon 

 country. 



A final tree flowering in 

 June is the mountain ash, 

 occurring along river banks, 

 swamp edges and mountain 

 ravines all over the East and 

 as far West as Minnesota. 

 Its blossom is a large flat 

 umbrella of white flowers, 

 perfect, each one setting fruit 

 to a berry which turns bright 

 red and stays on until winter; 

 a most ornamental little tree, 

 a pleasure to meet in any forest 

 any time from June until 

 December. 



Turning to the evergreens, 

 you would be surprised to 

 learn how beautiful and inter- 

 esting are their flowers. I 

 have lots of them, of many 

 species about me in Interlaken, 

 and never fail to watch them 

 all closely during the flowering 

 period. The pines flower late 

 in May and early in June, 

 the pitch pine leading off with 

 handsome brushes of sterile 

 flowers and spikes with laven- 

 der trimmings, which later 

 develop into cones. The white 

 pine puts out three or four 

 brown pencils at each termi- 

 nal bud which grow into the 

 sterile flowers, while the em- 

 bryo cones show soft pink- 

 edged scales. When these are 

 young, with green scales and pink 

 edges, they are as pretty an object as 

 grows in the woods. The two cedars, 

 white and red, start flowering early in 

 May, the white being covered with 

 little purple flowerets which develop into 

 reddish-brown cones, and the red cedar 

 with purple-red flowers replaced later 

 with the characteristic blue berry, 



