324 FLOWERING SHRUBS 



This shrub, which is exceedingly ornamental, has yellow 

 wood and bright green foliage, which turns to a lovely reddish 

 colour in the autumn. The tiny vivid yellow flowers grow in 

 short thick clusters ; they have six bracted sepals, with six 

 petals opposite them, also six stamens. 



CHOKE CHERRY 



Prunus Virginiana. Rose Family 



A shrub two to ten feet high, or very rarely a small tree, with gray 

 bark. Leaves : thin, obovate, abruptly acute, rounded at the base, 

 sharply serrulate with slender teeth. Flowers: white, in erect or spread- 

 ing, mainly loosely-flowered racemes terminating the leafy branches of 

 the season ; calyx five-cleft ; corolla of five suborbicular spreading 

 petals. Fruit : a dark red drupe, globose, very astringent, stone globular. 



This tall shrub, or tree, bears abundant white blossoms, 

 which grow in long graceful racemes amid the dark green 

 leaves. These leaves are broadly oval in outline and finely 

 edged with numerous tiny sharp teeth. It is in this latter 

 characteristic that the Primus differs materially from Ame- 

 lanchier alnifolia^ or Service-berry, with which it is some- 

 times confused. The Service-berry has smaller roundish 

 leaves, edged above the middle with marked teeth, and its 

 blossoms are larger and fewer in number. 



The Choke Cherry grows from looo to 3000 feet above sea 

 level, and the profusion of its snowy sweet-scented flower- 

 clusters, which are followed in due course by the dark red 

 semi-transparent fruit, renders it a great ornament to the 

 alpine mountain sides. This fruit is edible, but very astrin- 

 gent, and contains a tiny round stone. 



