May 109, 1906.] 
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4 
Wild Cherries. 
Over a large part of the United States much 
of the beauty of the landscape in May is due to 
the blossoms of our three species of wild cherry; 
namely, the red or bird cherry, the black cherry 
and the choke cherry. All of these have white 
flowers, which appear in May in vast profusion 
and which, in consequence, give to the land- 
scape a special attractiveness. 
The wild red cherry or bird cherry pushes 
out its blossoms first, these appearing at the 
time when the leaves are expanding. They are 
borne in leafless clusters along the sides of the 
branches, especially toward the tip, each cluster 
being composed of several flowers that rise 

BLOSSOMS OF BIRD CHERRY, 
from a short, broad base. The flower stalk is 
about three-quarters of an inch long, and is 
tipped by a bell-shaped calyx, from which arise 
the five white petals which are much narrowed 
at the base. There is a large nectar-secreting 
surface on the inside of the bell-like calyx 
which is often yellowish brown and from which 
a considerable amount of nectar is secreted to 
reward the hosts of bees and other insects that 
come to the blossoms. The flowers have a dis- 
tinct and rather pleasing odor. They are suc- 
ceeded by the small red cherry that ripens 
through the later weeks in summer and serves 
as a part of the food of many birds. 
The choke cherry is generally the next species 
on the ends of the short leafy branches of the 
to blossom, the flowers appearing in clusters 
o nthe ends of the short leafy branches of the 
new season’s growth. This species is much 
more likely to be found as a shrub than as a 
tree. In the former condition it is very gen- 
erally distributed over a vast range extending 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
from the Hudson Bay region on the north to 
Georgia, Texas and Mexico on the south. 
When it takes on the tree-like form, it rarely 
exceeds a height of twenty-five feet or a trunk 
diameter of six inches. The tree is readily dis- 
tinguished from the black cherry by its reddish 
fruit and its broader leaves, with sharply pointed 
serrations along their margins, these points not 
turning forward as do those of the margins of 
the black cherry. 
The leaves of the choke cherry are dull green 
above and lighter below. In autumn they turn 
reddish-orange or yellowish-orange, gradually 
changing to brown, with stems and midribs of 
a magenta or crimson color. After the leaves 
have fallen the young branches have a rather 
characteristic appearance which enables one 
readily to recognize them. The bark is of a 
grayish-brown or reddish-brown color spotted 
with lighter colored oval dots. The buds are of 
good size, pointed and conical, with brown, 
smooth scales. The bark is bitter to the taste 
and has a characteristic odor. 
The choke cherries blossom in May, and for 
a brief period take on a beautiful appearance on 
account of the white cluster of small flowers. 
These flowers are very similar to those of the 
black cherry, and are visited by great numbers 
of insects. They soon pass by, however, and 
are succeeded by small green cherries that 
slowly develop through the summer until by the 
end of August they reach their full size and take 
on the dull red color of maturity. These 
cherries are eaten by many birds, but have a 
curiously astringent taste which has given the 
species its common name. 
The choke cherry is much more subject to 
attack by the black knot than is the black 
cherry. It is almost universzily disfigured by 
the strange excrescences of this curious disease, 
which is so strong a menace to cultivated 
cherries and plums that it is not wrth while 
to attempt to plant the choke cherry for orna- 
mental purposes. It is rather desirable in all 
regions wheie iruli-growing is to be encouraged 
that the shrubs should be exterminated from 
along the roadsides or in the pastures where 
they serve as a propagating ground for insect 
aud fungus pests. 
Curiously enough, there seem to be localities 
in which the choke cherry is exempt from the 
attacks of this black knot. In some regions in 
northern New Hampshire, where the choke 
cherry is exceedingly abundant, one will see 
none of the twigs disfigured by this fungus, “i- 
though cultivated plums and cherries are at- 
tacked by it. 
The black cherry produces the most nearly 
edible fruit of the three species. There is con- 
siderable variation in the size and qualit-- of the 
black cherry fruits, as almost any one who has 
had much experience with them can testify. The. 
flowers of this species are very similar to those 
of the choke cherry, although they generally 
appear a little later in the season. During 
spring 2ad early summer the species is most 
easily distinguished by means of the leaves, the 
teeth along the margins being minute, regular 
and pointed forward in a characteristic fashion. 
The black cherry is much more likely to grow 
in the form of a tree than is the choke cherry. 
CLARENCE M. WEED. 
A double-headed snake was found near here a 
few years ago by Mr. W. T. Lander and placed 
on exhibition at the drug store of Orr & Sloan, 
Anderson, S. C., where it was seen by a great 
many people. It was about a foot long and had 
two perfectly developed heads, which seemed to 
act independently of each other. About an inch 
from the heads they joined in one snake without 
any other peculiarites.—Blue Ridge, Denver, S. C. 
Woodland Buffalo. 
Bison bison athabasce Rhoads. 
From R. MacFarlane’ s ‘‘Mammals of the Northwest 
Territories” is percceeu ie of the National Museum, 
Vol. XXVIII 
THIs variety ef the American bison was fairly 
numerous when I first went north to Mackenzie 
River in 1853, but it has since gradually dimin- 
ished in numbers in the Athabasca district, and its 
utter extermination is now only a question of 
time, unless restrictive hunting rules are adopted 
without delay. When Thomas Simpson, the cele- 
brated artcic explorer, traveled down the valley 
of the Clearwater River in January, 1837, traces 
of buffalo were quite abundant, but for the last 
forty years they have practically forsaken that 
quarter and have dwindled so greatly in number 
that only a few individuals are now to be met 
with in open spaces and patches of prairie in sec- 
tions on the west side of the Athabasca River, be- 
tween Fort McMurray and the Birch Mountain, 
as well as in similar tracts of country from Pointe 
a la Paix on the lower Peace to the plains of Salt 


WILD BLACK CHERRIES. 
From “Birds in Their Relations to Man.” 
River in latitude 60° north, which had from time 
immemorial been regularly frequented and occu- 
pied by hordes of bison. 
At the end of the eighteenth and in the earlier 
part of the nineteenth century, buffalo were abun- 
dant on the upper Peace River, and many also 
roamed to the northwest as far as the - Liard 
River. Even as late as 1864 a straggler was killed 
within forty miles of the company’s post of that 
name and another in 1866 about twenty-five miles 
from the same. 
sited. Richardson states that there were some 
bison in the Horn Mountain, southeast of Fort 
Simpson, in the beginning of the last century 
(1800). while some were also met with on the 
east side of the Athabasca, below and above Fort 
McMurray. During a residence of fifteen years 
(1870 to 1885) at Fort Chipewyan, Lake Atha- 
basca, our native fort hunters never failed in 
winter to kill one or more bison for the use of the 
establishment, the meat of which was hauled 
