FOREST TREES. 105 



California. A tree from twenty to thirty feet high, but some- 

 times more. 



A. rnbra. Red Alder. Leaves thick, rusty pubescent beneath, 

 four to eight inches long, coarsely toothed. Seeds obovate, 

 surrounded by a narrow, membraneous wing. The branches 

 are rather stout and coarse, with bark of dark brown, dotted 

 with white. A tree thirty to forty feet high on the Pacific 

 Coast, from Sitka to Southern California, and common on the 

 hills about Oakland, in the vicinity of San Francisco. This is 

 the Alnus Oregona of Nuttall's "North American Sylva," and 

 also of catalogues. 



Of foreign species of the Alder there are more varieties than 

 species in cultivation, but there are none which grow to a 

 larger size, or are of more value as forest trees than those found 

 indigenous to North America, in fact, the Alders of both conti- 

 nents seem to be very closely allied and probably all spring 

 from the same original stock. Some very handsome varieties 

 are cultivated in nurseries, especially those with finely cut 

 leaves. These are propagated by grafting, although all the 

 species and varieties of the Alder may be readily propagated by 

 cuttings planted in low, moist soils. The seeds also germinate 

 readily, and may be gathered and treated the same as those of 

 the maple, and similar forest trees. 



AMELANCHIER. June-Berry, Service- Berry, Shadbush. 



Of this genus we have only one indigenous species that grows 

 large enough to be classed among trees. The flowers are small, 

 pure white, produced in long racemes, and in such great 

 abundance in early spring that the trees become conspicuous 

 and attractive objects scattered along the banks of thousands 

 of the small streams and rivers throughout the country, for 

 this species, or some of its varieties inhabit almost every square 

 mile of forest from Hudson's Bay in the north, southward to 

 Florida, and westward to the Pacific, and even growing at an 

 altitude of ten thousand feet in the Rocky Mountains. 



Amelanehier Canadensis. Eastern Shadbush. Leaves simple, 

 sharply serrate. Flowers white. Fruit small, berry-like, roundish, 

 purple when ripe, sweet or sprightly, sub-acid, edible. A small 

 tree, but sometimes fifty feet high, with stem a foot or more 

 in diameter, wood hard, very heavy, and resembling that of the 

 apple tree. This is an exceeding variable species, and it runs 

 into many forms or varieties, to which distinct names have 



