XXVIII 2. THE NORTHERN RED CHERRY. 451 
which circumstance it is distinguished from the Sloe, which 
also is naturalized in some parts of the country. The segments 
of the calyx are entire, and obtuse. Petals white, inversely 
egg-shaped. ‘The stamens are numerous. Style single, longer 
than the stamens. The fruit is usually round and black, cov- 
ered with a yellowish bloom. 
This plant was first pointed out to me by my friend E. Tuck- 
erman, and I have since repeatedly met with it. 
XXVIII 2. THE CHERRY. CERASUS. Jussieu. 
The name Cérasus, derived from a town on the Black Sea, 
from whence this tree is supposed to have been introduced into 
Italy, designates a genus of about forty species, natives of all 
the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. ‘They are 
trees or shrubs, with smooth, serrated leaves, which are folded 
together when young, and white or reddish flowers, growing in 
bunches, like umbels, preceding the leaves, or in terminal ra- 
cemes, accompanying or following the leaves. The fruit is a 
fleshy drupe, globose, or with a hollow at base, and containing 
a nearly globose, smooth nut. A few species, with numerous 
varieties, produce valuable fruits; nearly all are remarkable 
for the abundance of their early flowers, sometimes rendered 
double by cultivation. T’en species are found in this country 
north of Mexico, of which the following occur in Massachusetts. 
Section First.—LfVowers in umbels, pedicels 1-flowered, spring- 
ing from the buds. 
This includes most of the cultivated cherries, and 
Sp. 1. Tse Nortuern Rep Cuerry. €. Pennsyludnica. 
Torrey and Gray. 
Figured in Michaux, North American Flora, Plate 98. 
The northern Red Cherry is a small, slender tree, rising 
sometimes to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, with a 
diameter of six to nine inches. I have met with it in many 
parts of the State, and it occurs abundantly on the plains in the 
central counties. On the top and steep sides of Wachusett, it 
