ROSE FAMILY 



light red and lustrous, finally red brown. They develop in their 

 second year spur-like branchlets. 



Wood. — Light brown, sapwood pale yellow ; light, soft, close- 

 grained. Sp. gr., 0.5023 ; weight of cu. ft., 31.30 lbs. 



ll'iu/i'r Buds. — Brown, small, acute, often aggregated. 



Li-avi's. — Alternate or in pairs, simple, oblong-lanceolate, three to 

 five inches long, three-quarters of an inch to an inch broad, wedge- 

 shaped or rounded at liase, serrate, acute or acuminate. Feather 

 veined. They come out of tlie bud conduplicate and bronze green ; 

 when full grown are bright lustrous green above, paler beneath. In 

 autumn they turn a bright yellow. Petioles slender, grooved, smooth 

 or hairy, often glandular aljove the middle. Stipules acuminate, 

 serrate and early deciduous. 



FUnvL-rs. — May, when leaves are half grown. Perfect, white, one- 

 half inch across, borne on slender pedicels in four or five-flowered 

 umbels, generally clustered, two or three together. 



Caly.x. — Campanulate, smooth, five-lobed ; lobes obtuse, tipped 

 with red, finally reflexed, imbricate in bud. 



Corolla. — Petals five, cream-white, one-fourth of an inch long, 

 nearly orbicular, with shoit claws, inserted on the caly.x tube. 



Stamens. — Fifteen to twenty, inserted on calyx cup ; filaments 

 thread-like, smooth ; anthers introrse, two-celled ; cells opening lon- 

 gitudinally. 



Pis/il. — Ovary one, superior, set in the calyx cup, smooth, one- 

 celled ; style filiform ; stigma capitate ; ovules two. 



Fruit. — Drupe, globular, one-fourth of an inch in diameter, tipped 

 with remnants of the style, light red with thin skin and sour ilesh, 

 July. Stone oblong ; cotyledons thick and fleshy. 



The ease with which tiie seeds of Priniwi pcinnyh'aii'uii are clisseininated 

 by birds and mountain streams, their \'itality and power of i^Laanination in soil 

 where tlie upper layers ot^ liumus have been destroyed tiy fire, anrl the r,3pid 

 growth of the voung plants, which soon form a covering for longer-li\'ed trees, 

 constitiUe the chief \'ahic and interest of this [ilant, which in the northern part 

 of the country east of the mid-continental plateau, has plajad an important 

 part in the reproduct'on and preservation of the forests. 



— Gat den and Forest. 



The range fjf the Wild RetJ Cherry is northern, it rarely 

 goes south and then only by way of the mountain tops. In 

 its best estate the tree is fifty feet high, but ordinarily it is 

 much smaller and it often constitutes the bulk of the un- 

 dergrowth of a forest. It bears the reddish l)rowii, shining 

 bark characteristic of all the cherries, which peels off in hor- 

 izontal strips which is also a characteristic of the cherries. 



124 



