360 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



shrubby ; very abundant and forming groves of considerable extent on the island of 

 Santa Catalina. 



Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in California, and rarely in the 

 countries of southern Europe. 



6. AMELANCHIER, Med. 



Trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, slender terete branchlets, acute buds, with imbri- 

 cated scales, those of the inner rows accrescent and bright-colored, and fibrous roots. 

 Leaves alternate, conduplicate in the bud, simple, entire or serrate, penniveined, 

 petiolate, deciduous; stipules free from the petioles, linear, elongated, rose color, 

 caducous. Flowers in erect or nodding racemes, on slender bibracteolate pedicels 

 developed from the axils of lanceolate acuminate pink deciduous bracts; calyx-tube 

 campanulate or urceolate, the lobes acute or subulate, recurved, persistent; disk 

 green, entire or crenulate, nectariferous; petals white, obovate-oblong, spatulate or 

 ligulate, rounded, acute, or truncate at the apex, gradually contracted below into short 

 slender claws; stamens usually 20, inserted in 3 rows, those of the outer row opposite 

 the petals; filaments subulate, persistent on the fruit; anthers oblong; ovary inferior 

 or superior, more or less adnate to the calyx-tube, glabrous or puberulous above, 5- 

 celled, each cell incompletely divided by a false partition; styles 2-5, connate below, 

 spreading and dilated above into broad truncate stigmas; ovules 2 in each cell, erect; 

 micropyle inferior. Fruit globose or pyriform, dark blue, open at the summit, the cav- 

 ity surrounded by the lobes of the calyx and the remnants of the filaments; flesh 

 sweet, rather juicy; carpels membranaceous, free or connate, glabrous or villous at 

 the apex. Seeds 10 or often 5 by the abortion of 1 of the ovules in each cell, ovate- 

 elliptical; seed-coat coriaceous, dark chestnut-brown, mucilaginous; embryo filling 

 the cavity of the seed; cotyledons plano-convex; radicle inferior. 



Amelanchier is widely distributed through the temperate, northern, and the moun- 

 tainous regions of eastern and western North America, and occurs in southern Eu- 

 rope, northern Africa, southwestern Asia, central China and in Japan. . Several spe- 

 cies, still imperfectly known, occur in North America; of these three are arborescent. 

 The fruit of all the species is more or less succulent and edible, and many species are 

 cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their early and conspicuous flowers. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ABORESCENT SPECIES. 



Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate at the apex, cordate or rounded at the 



base, dark red-brown and pilose when they unfold, soon glabrous. 



1. A. Canadensis (A, C). 

 Leaves oblong to elliptical, acute or rounded at the apex, hoary-tomentose below when they 



unfold, becoming glabrous at maturity. 2. A. obovalis (A, C). 



Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular, obtuse or rarely acute, hoary-tomentose below when they 



unfold, becoming glabrous. 3. A. alnifolia (A, B). 



1. Amelanchier Canadensis, T. & G. Shad Bush. Service Berry. 



Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, acute, cordate or rounded at the base, finely serrate, 

 with straight incurved rigid subulate teeth, when they unfold dark red-brown and 

 pilose, with scattered deciduous white hairs, at maturity thick and firm, glabrous, dark 

 green and dull above, pale below, 3'-4' long and I'-l-^' wide, with prominent midribs 

 and slender veins, turning bright clear yellow in the autumn before falling; their 

 petioles slender, \'-V long. Flowers appearing when the leaves are about one third 



