404 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
Pa., says of it : “ For a single specimen on a lawn, it is not ex- 
celled. Its habit is good, and its flowering abundant.” The leaves 
are rather narrower and thinner than those of the common cherry. 
The flowers are white, in racemes from two to five inches long, and 
appear in May. The fruit, ripe in August, is black, austere, and 
poisonous, but showy, from the abundant racemes that cover the 
tree. The growth when young is rapid, somewhat straggling, and 
is improved by clipping. Form at maturity, oblate. Height 
twenty to thirty feet. 
The Cerasus padus bracteosa is a variety of the above, especially 
recommended in England on account of its larger racemes of pen- 
dulous flowers and fruit. 
The Mehaleb Cherry, C. mehaleb, has a large glossy leaf, 
rapid growth, and symmetric form, giving promise of great beauty 
when young, but as it comes to full size the foliage becomes 
meagre, and the mass of branches conspicuous, making it a tree of 
little beauty. It forms a round head, twenty to thirty feet high. 
The American Wild Cherry, C. virginmia ( serotinal ) grows 
wild all over our country. It is a large tree, and one of considera- 
ble beauty at every age. The bark and berries are used in spirits 
to make infusions that are considered medicinal. It is a compan- 
ion for the birches in the lightness or slenderness and partial 
pendulousness of its outer spray, but the opposite of that family in 
the color of its bark and leaves ; the young wood being very dark, 
purplish, and the leaves also dark, but glossy. The characteristic 
form of the tree is squarish-oval, the height greater than the 
breadth, and gracefully irregular in outline. When well grown, in 
rich soil, the dark luxuriance of its shining foliage contrasts well 
with such trees as the birches, the catalpa, or the kolreuteria. 
The Ever-flowering Weeping Cherry. C. semperflorens . — 
One of the prettiest of small weeping trees. Grafted on the proper 
stock, it becomes a square-headed tree ten feet high, flowering and 
fruiting all summer. The flowers are white, and like those of the 
common cherry. 
