THE APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, MOUNTAIN ASH, CHERRY TREE, AND THE SHAD
BUSH.
Family Rosaceæ
The rose family is a very large order of trees, shrubs, and herbs
belonging to temperate climates. There are numerous genera, including
valuable fruit and ornamental trees which have been cultivated since
the earliest times. Many of the species are so familiar that they
scarcely need description in summer, but in winter the character of
their buds and stems is less easily recognized, and unless the trees
are well grown it is sometimes difficult to identify them.
[Sidenote: Common Apple Tree
_Pyrus malus_]
_A flat-topped tree, 20 to 40 feet high. The bark of the tree scales
off in small, thin, brittle plates. The buds and the stems are small
and somewhat woolly. The leaf-scars are alternate and inconspicuous,
with three bundle-scars._
The low, flat-topped, broad-headed shape of the apple tree is so
characteristic that it may be easily recognized in winter, even when
there is no surrounding orchard to identify it. So strong in one’s
mind is the association of blossoms with these trees, that even a bare
old apple tree against a winter sky suggests the spring,—an apple
tree always seems to be haunted by the ghosts of its pink blossoms.
The literary history of this tree goes back to the mythologies of
the Greeks, the Scandinavians, and the Druids, and it also figures
prominently in early Christian as well as pagan legends. It has been
cultivated for its fruit since prehistoric times, and there are
hundreds of varieties of it in cultivation.
The wood is fine-grained, hard, and a rich reddish brown color. It is
used for small purposes in turnery. The fruit, however, is the most
valuable product of the tree, and cider has been made from it for
hundreds of years. Its native country is uncertain, but it is probably
indigenous to the Northwestern Himalayas and the forests along the
Black Sea. It was introduced into Britain by the Romans, and it is
widely naturalized in the United States.
The generic name, _Pyrus_, is the ancient classical name for the pear
tree, and probably was originally taken from the Celtic word _peren_,
from which the English word was derived. The specific name, _malus_, is
the ancient classical name for the apple tree.
[Sidenote: Common Pear Tree
_Pyrus communis_]
_A pyramidal tree, 30 to 70 feet high. The bark is smooth, and
the branches incline to be thorny, especially when the tree has
escaped cultivation. Smooth stems and small pointed buds. Alternate
inconspicuous leaf-scars, with three bundle-scars._
As distinctive in shape as the apple tree, but in striking contrast
to it, the erect pyramidal head of the pear tree is easily recognized
in winter, and its small, pointed buds and smooth stems offer other
points of difference. Like the apple tree, the pear tree has been in
cultivation for hundreds of years and there are innumerable varieties.
It seems incongruous that so small a tree should live to a great age,
but Bosc alludes to pear trees more than four hundred years old, and
Knight tells of several which date back to the fifteenth century.
The wood is heavy and compact, and is used in Europe by wood engravers
and turners. A drink called perry is made from pears in much the same
way that cider is made from apples. It was considered an antidote to
mushroom poisoning by the Romans, and in England it is still taken,
“after a surfeit of that vegetable,” according to Loudon. The pear tree
is a native of nearly all the elevated regions of Europe and Western
Asia. Like the apple tree it was introduced into Britain by the Romans,
and it is widely naturalized in the United States.
[Sidenote: Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree
_Pyrus americana_]
_A slender tree, or tall shrub, 20 to 30 feet high. Slender spreading
branches with smooth bark. The twigs are downy, becoming smooth and
brownish red in color. Large alternate leaf-scars. The buds are
pointed, reddish in color, and gummy to the touch. The inner scales of
the buds are coated with down. It has bright scarlet berry-like fruit,
which remains on the tree through the winter._
[Illustration: A YOUNG BLACK CHERRY TREE
_Prunus serotina_
Page 171
]
The mountain ash is seldom associated in our minds with apple and
pear trees, but it belongs to the same genus nevertheless, and has
absolutely nothing in common with the ash tree, as one might suppose.
The American mountain ash is frequently planted as an ornamental tree,
although the European species is more often cultivated than ours. The
buds of the European mountain ash are blunter and more downy than those
of the American, the bark is lighter in color, and the berries are
larger, but apart from these differences the trees can scarcely be told
apart in winter.
_Pyrus sambucifolia_, the elder-leafed mountain ash, is another native
species which grows wild in the mountains of Northern New England and
is found as far north as Greenland and westward. The range of _Pyrus
americana_ is more limited, but it is found from Newfoundland to North
Carolina and westward.
[Sidenote: Wild Black Cherry
_Prunus serotina_]
_A tree or shrub, varying from 15 to 100 feet high. The bark is smooth
on young trees, with conspicuous horizontal lenticels; on old trees
it cracks and breaks off in small, thin, brittle scales. The branches
are slender, rigid, reddish brown in color, and bitter to the taste.
The buds are pointed, a light chestnut brown in color, with closely
overlapping scales. Alternate leaf-scars._
The black cherry may be identified in winter by its bark and by the
disagreeable bitter taste of its stems,—no other tree has a strong,
peculiar, pungent taste like this. The bark of the young trees is
really beautiful, it is so smooth and has such a rich reddish brown
color; in some characteristics it resembles that of the black birch,
but the larger, coarser lenticels distinguish it from that tree.
The black cherry is a valuable timber tree. The wood is light, strong,
and hard, and takes a fair polish. It is used in cabinet making and for
the interior finish of houses. The bark of the branches and roots is
much used in medicine, and the ripe fruit is used to flavor alcoholic
liquors.
The meaning of the generic name, _Prunus_, is unknown, but it is
thought to be of Asiatic origin. The specific name, _serotina_ (late
flowering), refers to the blossoms of this tree, which appear in June,
later than those of other cherries. It is found from Nova Scotia to
Florida, and reaches its greatest size in the Western forests.
_Prunus virginiana_, the choke cherry, and _Prunus pennsylvanica_, the
wild red, bird, or pin cherry, are two small trees found more or less
frequently in the woods throughout the Atlantic States. They are both
distinguished from the black cherry by their red instead of black fruit.
The common sweet cherry (_Prunus avium_), the common peach tree
(_Prunus persica_), and the common garden plum (_Prunus domestica_) all
belong to this genus and are widely cultivated in the United States.
They are small trees with many varieties and are planted for their
fruit.
The cherry was brought from Asia to Italy, and from there it was
rapidly carried to all parts of Europe. The peach came originally from
China, and was brought to Great Britain by the Romans, who got it from
Persia during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. It was carried to
North America by the first settlers at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. The difficulty of raising peaches successfully in the Northern
States is not so much due to the cold weather as to the swelling of the
buds on warm winter days and in the early spring, which are afterwards
destroyed if the thermometer goes below zero. An interesting experiment
of whitewashing peach trees, to prevent the buds from absorbing heat
on sunny days, was tried by Mr. Whitten of the Missouri Experiment
Station, and it was found that whitened buds remained dormant until
April, while unprotected buds swelled perceptibly in February and
March. Eighty per cent of whitened buds passed the winter safely, where
only twenty per cent of unwhitened buds escaped injury by premature
swelling.
[Sidenote: Shad Bush; Service Berry; June Berry
_Amelanchier canadensis_]
_A small tree, 40 to 50 feet high, with smooth brown bark. Slender
twigs. The buds are brown and covered with slightly downy, silky
scales, and the leaf-scars are alternate._
The shad bush is strongly associated with the rich upland woods of
New England, and in the early spring its white flowers are among
the first to appear among the budding trees and shrubs, when the
streams are full and the shad begin to rise. In winter there are
no marked characteristics by which it may be known, apart from its
general resemblance to other genera in the family, and its delicate
twigs, small pointed buds with overlapping scales, and inconspicuous
leaf-scars.
The wood is close-grained, heavy, and exceedingly hard, and is used for
the handles of tools and other small implements.
The generic name, _Amelanchier_, is the Savoy name for the medlar. The
shad bush is found from Newfoundland to Northern Florida and westward.