A small tree rarely over 20 or 25 ft. in height with rather wide rounded top of spreading slender branches, and trunk rarely more than 8 or 19 in. in diameter covered with a thin dark brown bark rough with closely appressed scales. It is often a shrub of but few feet in height forming thickets of considerable extent. The fact that it is confined in its distribution mostly to old fields and roadsides in the vicinity of human habitations suggests the thought that it may be an introduced tree, but from whence it is not known. Early settlers found it growing about the settlements of the Indians in the South, among whom there was a tradition that it was brought from beyond the Mississippi River. Its fruit is valued for immediate eating and for preserves and jellies and is regularly marketed in season in southern towns, commonly under the name of "mountain cherries." Various improved forms are sold by nursery houses but only suitable for the southern climate. Leaves lanceolate to lance-oblong, 1-2 in long. mostly tapering at base, acute or apiculate at apex, sharply serrate, glabrous, lustrous bright green above, paler beneath and with short glabrous or puberulous petioles having two glands near the leaf blade. Flowers small, about 1 in. across. expanding before the leaves in lateral 2-4-flowered umbels, with slender glabrous pedicels; calyx glabrous with lobes pubescent inside; petals white, rounded. Fruit ripening in early summer, subglobose, about 1 in. in diameter, lustrous red, without bloom, with thin skin, juicy subacid flesh and turgid oblong thick-walled stone with thick rounded margins and somewhat grooved in the dorsal suture. 1. Prunus Chicasa Michx. Fig. 319. Branchlet with leaves and fruit, 1; fruit in cross-section, 2; isolated pits, 3; branchlet in late autumn, 4. 320. Trunk (bearing 2-foot rule) near State College, Pa. For specimens and trunk picture The Alleghany Sloe is a small intricately branched tree, at best not surpassing 18 or 20 ft. in height or 8 or 10 in. in thickness of trunk, vested in a loose scaly bark. It is usually a straggling shrub forming in places extensive thickets and occupying alike low moist soil and well-drained slopes and limestone ridges. In distribution it is the most restricted of the Plums, being confined so far as now understood to central Pennsylvania, chiefly Tussey Mountain in Huntingdon Co., Bald Eagle Mountain and Valley and the Alleghanies in Clearfield and Elk Counties. Occupying the wildest places of these regions it escaped the notice of botanists until about thirty years ago. It is well worthy of cultivation in the garden both on account of its abundant flowers and small glaucous blue-black fruit which it produces in abundance. The fruit is of a pleasant subacid flavor and is gathered and used, in considerable quantities under the name of "sloes," by the country residents, for preserves, jellies, etc. It is quite probable that it will be improved by selection and cultivation. Leaves obovate-elliptical, 1-3 in. long, mostly rounded or obtuse at base, acuminate at apex, sharply serrate, pubescent at first, finally puberulous, dark green above, paler and glabrous excepting on veins beneath; petioles 4 in. long. puberulous. Flowers appearing in May with the leaves, in. in diameter in 2-4-flowered umbels: calyx pubescent. Fruit ripens by the middle of August, subglobose, about 2 in. in diameter, dark purple with bloom. on stout pedicels, with thickish skin, of pleasant subacid or austere flavor and with turgid pit. |
