ROSE FAMILY 



Fruit. — Berry -like pome, depressed - globular or pyriform, 

 open at the summit, crowned with the calyx lobes and remnants of 

 the filaments. One-third to one-half of an inch long, rich purple 

 with slight bloom. Ripens in June, is sweet, with delicious flavor. 

 Seeds dark brown : cot\ ledons thick. 



At the time when the hazy, misty cloud of bursting buds 

 rests over the wooded hillside, a single tree suddenly de- 

 taches itself from the cloudy mist and stands forth clothed 

 in soft, feathery, indeterminate white. This is the June- 

 berry, otherwise known as the Shad Bush. This homely 

 name of Shad Bush was given it by the early inhabitants of 

 the eastern states because it chances to bloom by the side 

 of our tidal rivers at the time that the shad ascends them to 

 spawn. 



We know that nature's methods are gradual, that species 

 are not cut apart by sharp divisions, but it is not often that 

 we are permitted to trace the process of species-making, step 

 by step. The June-berries permit us to do this. There are 

 in America two well-defined species, the Atlantic, A. cana- 

 densis and the Pacific, A. alnifolia ; they differ in form of 

 flower, shape of leaf, and size of fruit. Yet they are one, 

 though two. 



On one side of the continent the mist-laden atmosphere of 

 the low lands and the cold winds from the Atlantic have de- 

 veloped A. canadensis. On the other side the subtle influ- 

 ence of a clearer atmosphere, together with a higher altitude 

 and warmer winds has produced A. alnifolia. 



On the Rocky Mountains where the two forms meet they 

 insensibly melt into each other and it is not possible to say 

 where one species ends and the other begins, nor of many in- 

 dividuals to which household they belong. Both can be 

 referred to an earlier arctic form which, driven southward 

 by the glaciers, returned to such different environments, that 

 two species developed and the intermediate forms persist. 



Our June-berry is little known save in its native haunts. 

 Its leaves somewhat resemble those of the pcai', but are finer 

 and more delicate, covered with a soft, silken down as they 



JC4 



