sparingly along the Connecticut
valley, as far as Wells river; Vermont,--along Lake Champlain, not
common; Norwich and Windsor on the Connecticut (Eggleston);
Massachusetts,--occasional throughout the state; Rhode Island,--common
(Bailey); Connecticut,--common (J. N. Bishop).

South to the Gulf states; west to Minnesota and Missouri.

=Habit.=--A small or medium-sized tree, 20-45 feet high, with a trunk
diameter of 8 inches to 2 feet; attaining farther south a maximum of 100
feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 4-6 feet; variable; most
commonly the rough, straight trunk, sometimes buttressed at the base,
branches a few feet from the ground, sending out a few large limbs and
numerous slender, horizontal or slightly drooping and more or less
tortuous branches; head wide-spreading, flattish or often rounded, with
deep green foliage which lasts into late autumn with little change in
color, and with cherry-like fruit which holds on till the next spring.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in young trees grayish, rough, unbroken, in old
trees with deep, short ridges; main branches corrugated; secondary
branches close and even; branchlets pubescent; season's shoots
reddish-brown, often downy, more or less shining.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, acute, scales chestnut
brown. Leaves simple, alternate, extremely variable in size, outline,
and texture, usually 2-4 inches long, two-thirds as wide, thin, deep
green, and scarcely rough above, more or less pubescent beneath, with
numerous and prominent veins, outline ovate to ovate-lanceolate, sharply
serrate above the lower third; apex usually narrowly and sharply
acuminate; base acutish, inequilateral, 3-nerved, entire; leafstalk
slender; stipules lanceolate, soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing with the leaves from the axils of the
season's shoots, sterile and fertile flowers usually separate on the
same tree; flowers slender-stemmed, the sterile in clusters at the base
of the shoot, the fertile in the axils above, usually solitary; calyx
greenish, segments oblong; stamens 4-6, in the fertile flowers about the
length of the 4 lobes, in the sterile exserted; ovary with two long,
recurved stigmas.

=Fruit.=--Drupes, on long slender stems, globular, about the size of the
fruit of the wild red cherry, purplish-red when ripe, thin-meated,
edible, lasting through the winter.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all
well-drained s