CHOKE CHERRY (Prunus Virginian, Linn.). Shrub to 35 feet. Bush or tree with crooked, short trunk, often leaning, and short, brown branches. Bark thin, scaly, dark brown, broken into irregular plates, strong-scented, often marked by pale excrescences. Wood heavy, close-grained, hard, but not strong. Worthless. Leaves oval, abruptly pointed at tip, tapering at base, finely serrate on plain margin, 2 to 5 inches long, bronze-green at first, becoming leathery, lustrous, dark green, paler beneath. Flowers in erect, finally drooping, ra cemes, 3 to 6 inches long, small, cup-shaped, white, with parts distinct; calyx persistent. Fruit ripening from June till
October, in drooping racemes, of dark purplish, soft, with pleasant, wing flavor, but puckery until dead ripe. Skin thick, shining. Pit ovate, ridged and grooved. Dist.: Low valley s and mountain slopes, British Columbia, throughout mountainous regions of North Lmerica; as a shrub, from New England to Georgia, and westward to the prairie states.