7H 
BOTANICAL. INDEX 
DWARF SERVICE DERRY. 
IIIS is :i fruit that I have had in cultivation several years, with increasing 
satisfaction. The plant is a very dwarf one, — about the size of a Houghton 
Gooseberry plant; — say three feet high. It suckers freely, forming a clump 
like a Lilac bush, producing a great profusion of white flowers in early 
Sitring, and is then as ornamental as the average Spirea. And again, when 
bending under its load of purple fruit, it is very attractive. It produces 
fruit so abundantly, even on small plants one and one-half to two feet high, that the 
branches hend to the ground. The berries, which ripen in June, are a full half- 
inch in diameter, and possess a very agreeable, sprightly flavor, with a delightful 
perfume. They are of a purplish red color, with a white bloom. 
The fruit resembles, but is decidedly superior, to any Whortleberries I have ever 
seen in the United States or Cana-- 
da, being larger, very much supe- 
rior in quality, more productive, 
and also in being adapted to all 
soils and situations. It is perfect- 
ly hardy throughout the United 
States and in British America as 
far north as CO degrees North lat- 
itude, and even further north, in 
Russian America. Elliott says in 
this far oil' region, millions of 
bushels ripen and fall to decay. 
Bears and other wild animals fat- 
ten on them, and the Indians use 
them as an article of food, both in 
a fresh and dried state. According 
to Loudon, “the berries make ex- 
cellent puddings, very little infe- 
rior to plum pudding.” 
A variety of Dwarf Service is 
cultivated in Iowa under the name 
of Whortleberry, and is now be- 
ing sold by the traveling tree ped- 
dler in several western states as 
“the genuine Whortleberry”, one 
of the few instances in which the 
plant sold is better than if it was 
what it is represented to be. 
There are other varieties of 
Dwarf Service under cultivation, 
that are not so dwarf as the one I 
am best acquainted with. These 
attain six to ten feet in height, and 
as far as I have been able to learn, 
produce smaller fruit than mine 
does. The Service Tree (A. Cana- 
densis) is found occasionally in our 
forests, forming a tree twenty to 
Fig. 151.— Dwarf Service Berry. forty feet high. It blooms pro- 
