574 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



branchlets marked by pale lenticels, becoming dark red-brown in their second year; more 

 often a large or small shrub, at the north frequently not more than 2-3 tall. Winter-buds 

 acute or obtuse, with pale chestnut brown scales rounded at apex and more or less scarious 

 on the margins, those of the inner rank becoming lanceolate or ligulate, sharply and often 

 glandular-serrate, and \'-\' in length. Bark strongly and disagreeably scented, about ' 

 thick, slightly and irregularly fissured, separating on the surface into small persistent dark 

 red-brown scales, and often marked by pale irregular excrescences. Wood heavy, hard, 

 close-grained, not strong, light brown, with thick lighter-colored sap wood of 15-20 layers of 

 annual growth. 



Distribution. Margins of the forest, generally in rich rather moist soil, and along high- 

 ways and fence-rows; Newfoundland, through Labrador to the shores of Hudson's Bay, 

 and southward to the valley of the Potomac River and northern Kentucky; in Buncombe 

 and Iredell Counties, North Carolina, and Talladega County, Alabama, and westward to 

 Saskatchewan, eastern North and South Dakota and Nebraska, northeastern Missouri and 

 Kansas; more often a tree southward and in cultivation. Passing into the var. melanocarpa 

 Sarg. with rather thicker rarely lanceolate leaves, and usually darker often less astringent 

 rarely yellow (/. xanthocarpa Sarg.) fruit. 



Distribution. Low valleys and the slopes of mountain ranges; Manitoba, western 

 North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, westward to northern British 

 Columbia, and southward in the Rocky Mountain region through Wyoming, Montana and 

 Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Nevada to southern New Mexico and Arizona, and through 

 Washington, Oregon and California to San Diego County; in the rich soil of valleys a tree 

 sometimes 30 tall; on dry mountain slopes a shrub 2 or 3 high. More distinct is 



Prunus virginiana var. demissa Sarg. 

 Cerasus demissa Nutt. 



Differing in its often cordate leaves covered below with pale pubescence. 

 Distribution. Prairies and valleys of western Washington and Oregon, southward to 



Fig. 527 



Siskiyou, Napa, Santa Cruz and Kern Counties, California, in northern Nebraska, central 

 Iowa, western Texas (Gamble's Ranch, Armstrong County, with pubescent leaves cuneate 

 at base), and in New Mexico. 



