404 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



Pa., says of it : " For a single specimen on a lawn, it is not ex- 

 celled. Its habit is good, and its flowering abundant." The leaves 

 are rather narrower and thinner than those of the common cherry. 

 The flowers are white, in racemes from two to five inches long, and 

 appear in May. The fruit, ripe in August, is black, austere, and 

 poisonous, but showy, from the abundant racemes that cover the 

 tree. The growth when young is rapid, somewhat straggling, and 

 is improved by clipping. Form at maturity, oblate. Height 

 twenty to thirty feet. 



The Cerasus padus bracteosa is a variety of the above, especially 

 recommended in England on account of its larger racemes of pen- 

 dulous flowers and fruit. 



The Mehaleb Cherry, C. mehaleb, has a large glossy leaf, 

 rapid growth, and symmetric form, giving promise of great beauty 

 when young, but as it comes to full size the foliage becomes 

 meagre, and the mass of branches conspicuous, making it a tree of 

 little beauty. It forms a round head, twenty to thirty feet high. 



The American Wild Cherry, C. virginiana (serotina 1) grows 

 -wild all over our country. It is a large tree, and one of considera- 

 l)le beauty at every age. The bark and berries are used in spirits 

 to make infusions that are considered medicinal. It is a compan- 

 ion for the birches in the lightness or slendemess and partial 

 pendulousness of its outer spray, but the opposite of that family in 

 the color of its bark and leaves ; the young wood being very dark, 

 purplish, and the leaves also dark, but glossy. The characteristic 

 form of the tree is squarish-oval, the height greater than the 

 breadth, and gracefully irregular in outline. When well grown, in 

 rich soil, the dark luxuriance of its shining foliage contrasts well 

 with such trees as the birches, the catalpa, or the kolreuteria. 



The Ever-flowering Weeping Cherry. C. semperflorens. — 

 "One of the prettiest of small weeping trees. Grafted on the proper 

 stock, it becomes a square-headed tree ten feet high, flowering and 

 fruiting all summer. The flowers are white, and like those of the 

 common cherry. 



