SHRUBS BELONaiNG TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 47 



The most familiar shrub of our Northern roadsides 

 is the common choke cherry {Primus Virginiana). 

 This is usually not over five feet high, although in 

 some localities it attains the proportions of a good- 

 sized tree. Its leaf is abruptly pointed, and it is 

 usually broadest just beyond the middle ; in 

 other words, it is reverse egg-shaped ; both 

 leaf and branch when bruised are not very 

 agreeably odorous. In early May its 

 beautiful tassels of white flowers ap- 

 pear, and these in late July are suc- 

 ceeded by clusters of red 

 berries almost as bright 

 as currents ; by the 

 end of August the 

 red has turned to 

 black, and the cher- 

 ries are ripe. If one does not 

 mind having the mouth puckered 

 so it besomes difficult to speak, 

 I presume this fruit may be con- ^.^^j chen-y. 

 sidered edible ; but I prefer to 

 leave it for the birds. I suppose tons of these ber- 

 ries are produced every season on the intervales and 

 roadsides beneath the giant hills of IvTew Hamp- 

 shire ; they cling to tlie bushes, too, until quite 

 late in the fall ; it is scarely strange, therefore, that 



