116 THE TREES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



ture as an apple, with seeds of the same appearance 

 and taste. It grows in small clusters, and is rather 

 dry and astringent. We have two varieties of this : 

 — one, with a red or purple fruit, found on the bor- 

 ders of branches and bays in the Middle and Lower 

 Districts ; — the other, in the mountains, and having 

 a purplish-black fruit. 



4. Mountain Ash. (P. Americana, D. C.) — 

 This charming tree is but little known in this State, 

 even in the mountains where it grows. At the 

 North it is highly prized as an ornament in yards, 

 especially for the beauty of its large clusters of scar- 

 let berries, which hang upon the tree through the 

 Winter. It is scarcely distinguishable from the Moun- 

 tain Ash or Rowan Tree of Great Britain. It is not 

 very rare on our higher mountains, from Ashe to 

 Macon, where it is called Wine Tree (from a kind of 

 liquor said to be made from it) and Mountain Sumach. 

 The foliage is more like that of a Sumach than of 

 any other of our trees ; and in this respect, as indeed 

 in every other, the general aspect of the tree is so 

 unlike that of an Apple Tree., that none but a 

 Botanist would suspect a relationship. The flowers 

 are of a dirty white, in spreading clusters like those 

 of the Elder, succeeded by berry-like scarlet fruit. 

 In favorable soil this is from 12 to 20 feet high ; in 

 rock}^ ground, often a mere shrub. 



Persimmon. (Diospyros Virginiana, Linn.) — 

 Common in the United States from Rhode Island 

 and New York southward, and in all the Districts 



