THE CHERRIES 153 



ideal toward wliicli patience and skill have striven success- 

 fully. "Spring is the season of the eye," says the Japan- 

 ese poet. Of all their national flower holidays, cherry 

 blossom time, in the third month, is the climax. 



The Wild Cherry 



Prunus Pennsylvanica, Linn. 



The wild red, bird, or pin cherry grows in rocky woods, 

 forming tliickets and valuable nurse trees to hardwoods, 

 from Newfoundland to Georgia, and west to the Rocky 

 Mountains. The birds enjoy the ruddy little fruits and 

 hold high carnival in June among the shining leaves. 

 Many an ugly ravine is clothed with verdure and whitened 

 with nectar-laden flowers by this comparatively worthless, 

 short-lived tree; and in many burnt-over districts, the bird- 

 sown pits strike root, and the young trees render a distinct 

 service to forestry by this young growth, which is gone by 

 the time the pines and hardwoods it has nursed require the 

 ground for their spreading roots. 



The Wild Black Cherry 



P. scroiina, Ehrh. 



The wild black cherry or rum cherry {see ill uslraf ion, page 

 166) y is tlie substantial lumber tree of the genus, whose 

 ponderous trunk furnishes cherry wood, vying with mahog- 

 any and rosewood in the esteem of the cabinet-maker, who 

 uses cherry for veneer oftener than for solid furniture. 



The drug trade depends upon this tree for a tonic de- 

 rived from lis bark, roots, and fruit. Cherry brandies, 

 cordials, and clierr}' bounce, that good old-fashioned home- 



