ROSE FAMILY 



continent prized it highly, and that it was to them an im- 

 portant article of food. 



However, the Choke Cherry has recently come into ex- 

 tensive cultivation on the clav flats bordering the Richelieu 

 anil St. Lawrence Rivers in the prcivince of (Quebec. It is 

 cultivated mosth' in tree form and the fruit varies greatly, 

 not onlv in size and color but also in degree of astringency. 



Professor Sargent savs : " This is the most widely dis- 

 tributed North American tree. It is fciund within the arctic 

 circle, ranging across the continent from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, it extends southward until it reaches the Gulf states 

 and northern Mexico." 



All our wild cherries and plums carrv with them a menace 

 to the health and well-being of cultivated cherries and plums. 

 For all are subject to a disease native to this continent, known 

 as Black Knot. Tills wartv excrescence was formerly sup- 

 posed to be caused bv insects, but it is now known to be the 

 result of a fungus whicli attacks the tree and the disease 

 easilv passes from the native to the cultivated species. In 

 manv districts it is now impossible to grow cherries and 

 plums because of it. The Choke Clierrv is especiallv sub- 

 ject to its attack, and this makes the tree a dangerous neigii- 

 bor to orchards of cultivated fruit. 



BLACK CHERRY 



Pruiuis s^rcfiiui 



A tree with a stout sturdy trunk, spreading branches and round 

 head, sometimes a narrow oblong head. Usually forty to hfty feet 

 high, but on the slopes of the southern Alleghanies reaches the lieitjht 

 of one hundred feet. Prefers a rich moist soil, but will grow on light 

 sandy soil, and will also endure the winds of the sea-shore. Gro»s 

 rapidly. Widely distributed by the birds. 



Bark. — On old trunks blackish and rough, broken into small irreg- 

 ular roundish plates; on young trunks and large limits smooth and 

 shining, red brown marked with scattered lines and sometimes sepa- 

 rating into horizontal bands which curl at the edges. Branchlets 



12S 



