WILD BLACK CHERRY; RUM CHERRY (Prunus serotina, Ehrh.). .50 to 100 feet; trunk 4 to 5 feet. Large tree with narrow, oblong head of small, horizontal branches. Bark aromatic, bitter, yielding hydrocyanic acid, used in medicine. Fissures shallow, checking into broad plates from which the dark red-brown, satiny, surface bark curls back. Slits hor izontal, prominent on bark of limbs. Wood hard, close, straight-grained, reddish brown, used in cabinetwork and interior finish of houses. Leaves oval or oblong, tapering to both ends, wavy-margined, and fine-toothed, thin, lustrous, dark green, bitter-aromatic when crushed, 2 to 5 inches long, on slender petioles. Yellow in autumn. Flowers white, in
long, close-flowered racemes, small, distinct. Fruit pea sized berries, flattened, purplish, dark, juicy, sweetish, bitter aromatic, with thick Skins, used to flavor alcoholic liquors. Dist.: Nova Scotia to Florida; west through Canadian prov inces to north shore of Lake- Superior, Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico. and Arizona. Val uable lumber and shade tree