Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple petioled serrate or entire leaves, unarmed branches, and racemose or rarely solitary white flowers. Calyx-tube campanulate, more or less adnate to the ovary, 5-lobed, the lobes narrow, reflexed, persistent. Petals 5. Stamens ∞, inserted on the throat of the calyx; filaments subulate; styles 2-5, connate, pubescent at the base. Ovary wholly or partly inferior, its cavities becoming twice as many as the styles; ovule 1 in each cavity, erect. Pome small, berry-like, 4-10-celled. Testa of the seed cartilaginous. [The Savoy name of the Medlar.]

A genus of about 25 species, natives of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, some 12 others occur in western North America and 1 in Mexico. Type species: Mespilus amelanchier L.

The species apparently consist of many races, differing in size, in pubescence, and in size of flowers and fruit. Hybrids are also supposed to exist.

Flowers several or numerous in the racemes; pome globose.

Glabrous or pubescent trees and shrubs; leaves usually serrate nearly all around.

Leaves acute or acuminate at the apex; top of the ovary glabrous or nearly so

Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, usually glabrous when mature; base cordate or rounded;

petals narrowly oblong.

1.

A. canadensis.

Leaves oblong, oval, ovate or obovate, rarely subcordate at base, densely white-woolly

beneath, at least when young, petals oblong to obovate.

2.

A. intermedia.

Leaves rounded, obtuse or subacute at the apex; top of the ovary woolly.

Low shrub of rocky places, 1o - 3° high; petals 2" - 4" long.

3.

A. spicata.

Tree or small shrub; petals s"-8" long; leaves coarsely toothed.

4.

A. sanguinea.

Glabrous western shrub; leaves dentate above the middle only.

5.

A. alnifolia.

Flowers only 1-4 in the clusters; pome oblong or obovoid.

6.

A. Bartramiana.

1. Amelanchier Canadénsis (L.) Medic. June-Berry. Service-Berry. May-Or Sand-Cherry

Fig. 2329

Mespilus canadensis L. Sp. Pl. 478. 1753. Pyrus Botryapium L. f. Suppl. 255. 1781. A. Botryapium DC. Prodr. 2: 632. 1825. A. canadensis Medic. Geschichte 79. 1793.

A tree sometimes reaching the height of 6o°, with trunk diameter of 2°, but usually lower, seldom over 250 high. Leaves ovate or oval, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded or cordate at the base, sharply and finely serrate, sometimes sparingly pubescent when young, soon entirely glabrous, or the under surface sometimes persistently pubescent, 1'-3' long, or larger on young shoots; racemes spreading or drooping, pedicels long, slender; bracts silky, purplish, deciduous; petals linear, linear-spatulate, or linear-oblong, 6"-9" long, 3-4 times the length of the nearly or quite glabrous calyx; pome globose, red or purple, sweet.

In dry woodlands, Nova Scotia to western Ontario, Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana. Wood very hard, brown; weight per cubic foot 49 lbs. Service-tree. May-, juice-, or wild Indian-pear. Indian-cherry. Sugar-pear,-plum, or-berry. Shad-bush. Boxwood. Bill-berry. June-plum. March-May. Fruit ripe June-July.

Amelanchier lačvis Wiegand, of similar range, extending north to Newfoundland, with leaves glabrous or nearly so from the first, may be distinct.

1 Amelanchier Canad Nsis L Medic June Berry Servic 671