1546 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PRUNUS SEROTINA, American Black Cherry 



Primus serotina, Ehrhart, Beit. iii. 20 (1788); Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, ii. t. 97 

 (1880); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. iv. 45, t. 159 (1902), and Trees N. Amer. 524 (1905) j Von 

 Schwerin, in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges. 1906, p. i. 



Prunus virginiana, Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 3 (1768) (not Linnaeus). 



Cerasus serotina, Loiseleur, Nouv. Duham. v. 3 (1812); Loudon,^ Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 712 (1838). 



Cerasus virginiana, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 285 (1803) (not Loiseleur); Loudon,^ Arb. et Frut. 

 Brit ii. 710 (1838). 



Padus serotina, Agardh, Theor. Syst t. 14, f. 8 (1858); Schneider, Laubhokkunde, i. 643 (1906). 



A deciduous tree, attaining in America 100 ft. in height and 15 ft. in girth. 

 Bark, ^ to f in. thick, broken on the surface into small irregular scaly plates. 

 Young branchlets glabrous. Leaves slightly coriaceous, about 3 to 4 in. long, and \\ 

 to 2 in. broad, obovate-oblong or elliptic, acuminate at the apex, tapering at the base • 

 shining and glabrous above ; lower surface light green, with a dense band of rusty 

 pubescence on each side of the midrib, elsewhere glabrous ; regularly and sharply 

 glandular-serrate ; with one or two glands at the base of the leaf, or on the summit 

 of the glabrous petiole. 



Flowers in racemes, terminating short leafy branchlets ; axis and slender pedicels 

 glabrous ; calyx cup-shaped, with short ovate sepals, which persist on the ripe fruit ; 

 petals obovate, white. Fruit globose, slightly lobed, \ to \ in. in diameter, red 

 before ripening, almost black when ripe ; flesh dark purple, juicy ; stone obovate, 

 compressed, smooth, broadly ridged on the ventral suture. 



This species is often confused with P. virginiana, Linnaeus, a North American 

 shrub. The leaves of the latter are oval, cuspidate-acuminate, usually glabrous 

 beneath, with long pointed serrations ; and the inner bark of the branchlets has a 

 strong disagreeable odour, that of P. serotina being aromatic and agreeable. In 

 the former species the calyx is deciduous ; in the latter it is persistent on the fruit. 



Varieties 



I. This species is very variable in the wild state : and several geographical forms 

 have been distmguished, and ranked by American botanists as either varieties or 

 distinct species : ^ — 



I. Var. neomontana, Small, Fl. S.E. United States, 574 (1903) Leaves 

 coriaceous, very large, coarsely toothed, whitish beneath ; sepals pubescent. 

 Occurs on the higher summits of the Alleghany Mountains. 



2 Prunus CutMertii, Small, in Bull. Torrey Bot. ' Club, xxviii. 290 (1901). 

 Branchlets. axis of the inflorescence, and pedicels pubescent. Leaves coriaceous. 

 A shrubby form, growing in rich sandy soil in Georgia. 



1 Loudon describes/', serotina under both C. virriniana tmA r ,.^„f„ j 



the true P. virginiana, Linmeus. ^trgtmana and C. serotina ; and seems to have been unacquainted with 



2 Padus eximia, Small, Fl. S.E. United Statf^ tti i-.r.r^-.s i u 



