PLUM FAMILY 



the choke cherry, that well known fruit, familiar to 

 every country child of New England and the Middle 

 States. These cherries are borne in a full drooping 

 raceme, each one about the size of marrowfat pea, 

 varying in color from dark to bright red and some- 

 times yellow. There is a peculiar astringent quality 

 about them, that puckers the mouth of the eater and 

 darkens the teeth and the lips. When cooked this 

 quality entirely disappears. 



The flowers appear in loose racemes produced upon 

 the leafy branches of the year ; are white, with nearly 

 orbicular petals and exserted stamens. 



FLOWERING ALMOND 



Primus japonica. Pth'ius natia. Primus amygdalus. 



The hope, in dreams of a happier hour, 



That alights on misery's brow, 

 Springs forth like the silvery almond flower 



That blooms on a leafless bough. 



THOMAS MOORE. 



The Flowering" Almond was the <rem of our srrand- 



o o o 



fathers' gardens. In books and catalogues it possesses 

 a fine collection of Latin names; but when it. came into 

 England in the seventeenth century it so surpassed 

 the other almonds known there ii? the beauty of its 

 flowers that it gained at once the name of Flowering. 

 Through all the changes of changeful science this 

 name it has kept. 



This dwarf bush is rarely more than four feet high, 

 and early, before the leaves, the slender branches 

 burst into abundant bloom. The flowers are solitary 

 or in two-flowered umbels, very double, " crimson- 



114 



