When we are rambling in rustic lanes, that lead through rudely
cultivated grounds, we frequently meet with groups of tall handsome
shrubs, covered in May with a profusion of white flowers, and in August
heavily laden with bright scarlet fruit. Such is the Choke Cherry, a
small tree with which all are familiar from their frequent
disappointment on attempting to eat its fruit. Its promises to the sight
are not fulfilled to the taste. Though of an agreeable flavor, it is
exceedingly harsh and astringent. This is a more beautiful tree when in
flower than the black cherry, though it is generally a mere shrub, never
rising above fifteen or twenty feet in height. The racemes, when in
flower, are not drooping, as they are when laden with fruit, but stand
out at right angles with the branch, completely surrounding it, and
giving to every slender twig the appearance of a long white plume. In
the eastern part of Massachusetts I have found this species, as well as
the black cherry, in old graveyards,—so frequently, indeed, that in my
early days these trees were associated with graves, as the Lombardy
poplar is with ancient avenues. I suppose their frequency in these
places to be caused by the birds dropping the seeds at the foot of the
gravestones, where they quickly germinate, and are protected, when
growing, by the stone beside them.
The cultivation of the Gean, or Great Northern Cherry of Europe, which
was named by Linnæus the bird cherry, is encouraged in Great Britain and
on the Continent of Europe for the benefit of the birds, which are
regarded as the most important checks to the over-multiplication of
insects. The fact, not yet understood in America, that the birds which
are the most mischievous as consumers of fruit are the most useful as
destroyers of insects, is well known by all the farmers in Europe; and
while we destroy the birds to save the fruit, and sometimes cut down the
fruit-trees to starve the birds, the Europeans more wisely plant them
for their sustenance and accommodation.