Cherry

Cherry, name for several species of trees or shrubs of the genus Prunus (a few are sometimes classed as Padus) of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for their fruits. The small, round red to black fruits are botanically designated drupes, or stone fruits, as are those of the closely related peach, apricot, and plum. The cherry is one of the most commonly grown home-orchard fruits. About 600 varieties are cultivated, practically all derived from two species—P. avium (sweet cherries) and P. cerasus (sour cherries). Both are believed to be native to Asia Minor and have long been cultivated; they were mentioned in the writings of the ancients. Sour cherries are hardier and more easily grown than sweet cherries and are mostly self-fertile, while many sweet cherries must be cross-pollinated to bear well. The fruit is popular raw, in preserves, and in pies; cherry cider and liqueurs are also made. Europe is the largest producing area. Several species of the flowering cherry, many native to East Asia, are cultivated as weeping or erect trees for their beautiful, usually double flowers. The Japanese make a national festival of cherry-blossom time; the city of Tokyo presented a number of trees to Washington, D.C., where they have become a popular spring attraction. 

The species of American wild cherry include the chokecherry, pin cherry, and wild, black cherry. These have smaller fruits than the cultivated cherries and are seldom used except for jelly. Wood of the wild, black cherry, or rum cherry (P. serotina), usually reddish in color, is fine grained and of high quality. It takes a high polish and is prized for cabinetwork. The aromatic bark and leaves contain hydrocyanic acid, characteristic of many cherries. 

The cherry laurel (P. laurocerasus or Laurocerasus officinalis) is an Old World evergreen species cultivated elsewhere in many varieties as an ornamental. The leaves are sometimes used as a flavoring and in making cherry laurel water. The American cherry laurel (P. or L. caroliniana), called mock orange in the South, is similar but larger. 

Cherries are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Rosaceae.

Pear

Pear, name for a fruit tree of the genus Pyrus of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for its fruit, a pome. The common pear (P. communis) is one of the earliest cultivated of fruit trees, both in its native W Asia and in Europe. Most of the pear strains grown for their sweet and juicy fruit are varieties of P. communis or of its hybrids with other species of Pyrus—usually P. pyrifolia, known as the Japanese, Chinese, or sand pear and indigenous to China. The main use of the sand pear today is as a rootstock in pear orchards; the related quince is used for the same purpose. Pear strains with fruit of really good eating quality were not developed until the 18th and 19th cent. in N Europe, whence almost all the present successful varieties (e.g., the Bartlett and Seckel) grown in the United States (chiefly on the Pacific coast and in the Great Lakes area) were directly imported. European production is far greater—especially in Germany, France, and Switzerland, where much of the crop is used for making pear cider (perry). Pears are also cultivated on a large scale in Japan, Turkey, Argentina, and Australia. They are usually sold fresh or canned; some are dried. Several varieties of the common pear and of other species—e.g., the small, white-foliaged snow pear (P. nivalis)—are cultivated as ornamentals, and pear wood, hard and dense, is used to a limited extent in cabinetmaking. The pear tree and its fruit are similar to the closely related apple (considered by some botanists to be of the same genus) in characteristics and in method of cultivation, but the tree is somewhat less hardy and the fruit more perishable. Pear or fire blight is the tree's most serious disease; it is also attacked by several insect pests. Pears are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Rosaceae.

Figwort

Figwort, common name for some members of the Scrophulariaceae, a family comprising chiefly herbs and small shrubs and distributed widely over all continents. The family includes a few climbing types and some parasitic and saprophytic forms.

Common Species and Their Uses

Among its many wildflowers are several European species that have been introduced to America and become thoroughly naturalized, e.g., the mulleins (genus Verbascum), the common speedwell (Veronica officinalis), and the butter-and-eggs (Linaria vulgaris). The common mullein (V. thapsus), also called flannel plant and torches, was formerly a favorite multipurpose medicinal plant; it is still occasionally used for domestic remedies, e.g., as a tea for coughs. Its large stalks are said to have been oiled and used for funeral torches in early times. The speedwells, of which several species are native to the United States, are also called veronica, supposedly because of a resemblance of the flower to the relic (see veronica). Culver's root (V. virginica) has been used as a cathartic.

Butter-and-eggs, or yellow toadflax, has small snapdragonlike flowers of yellow and orange and is consequently known also as wild snapdragon. Among the other toadflaxes (genus Linaria) is the well-known American species, blue toadflax. Other indigenous wildflowers of the family include species of beardtongue, or pentstemon (genus Pentstemon); gerardia, or false purple foxglove (Gerardia) [for John Gerard]; painted cup, or Indian paintbrush (Castilleja); and figwort (Scrophularia). The beardtongues, herbs or shrubs, are named for the flower's single sterile stamen that is bearded at its flattened extremity. The roots of the painted cups, chiefly a Western genus, are partially parasitic on the roots of other green plants. Their true flowers are inconspicuous but are commonly enveloped by bright red flowerlike bracts. C. linariaefolia is the state flower of Wyoming. The name Scrophularia derives from the early belief that because the figworts are characterized by deep-throated flowers, they should be medicinally valuable in treating throat ailments (e.g., scrofula).

Many plants of the family are used medicinally; however, only the purple foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) of W Europe is economically important. Its leaves are the source of the drug digitalis, a powerful heart stimulant. The foxglove's tall spire of flowers, typical of many members of the family, makes it popular also as an ornamental. Each blossom, likened to the finger of a glove or to an elongated bell, points downward from the stalk. In England, where it grows wild, the plant has long been associated with fairies—as evidenced by many of its common names, e.g., fairy thimbles.

Numerous other plants of the family also have curious names derived from their unusual flower shapes—e.g., the turtle heads (Chelone) and monkey flowers (Mimulus) of North America and the little red elephants (Pedicularis groenlandica) of arctic and alpine regions. A favorite cultivated plant is the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus), native to the Mediterranean area. Its showy blossoms, likened to a dragon's snout, display a wide range of colors in the many varieties. Other ornamentals of the family include the Kenilworth ivy (Cymbalaria muralis), introduced into North America, and the calceolaria, or slipperwort (genus Calceolaria), herbs and shrubby plants of South America valued for their profusion of pouch-shaped, often spotted blossoms.

Classification

Figworts are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Scrophulariales.

Rhizome

Rhizome (rī`zōm) or rootstock, fleshy, creeping underground stem by means of which certain plants propagate themselves. Buds that form at the joints produce new shoots. Thus if a rhizome is cut by a cultivating tool it does not die, as would a root, but becomes several plants instead of one, which explains why such weeds as Canada thistle and crabgrass are so hard to eradicate. Ginger, the common iris, trillium, and Solomon's-seal all have rhizomes. True arrowroot is starch from the rhizome of a West Indian plant. See perennial.

Tuber, enlarged tip of a rhizome (underground stem) that stores food. Although much modified in structure, the tuber contains all the usual stem parts—bark, wood, pith, nodes, and internodes. The eyes of a potato tuber are nodes where sprouts appear, and they are arranged in the same spiral pattern characteristic of buds on an aerial stem.

Oak

Oak, any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus of the family Fagaceae (beech family). This complex genus includes as many as 600, found chiefly in north temperate zones and also in Polynesia. The more southerly species, ranging into the tropics, are usually evergreen. Oaks are cultivated for ornament and are prized as the major source of hardwood lumber. The wood is durable, tough, and attractively grained; it is especially valued in shipbuilding and construction and for flooring, furniture, railroad ties, barrels, tool handles, and veneer (particularly highly burled oak). The oaks are commonly divided into two groups, the black (or red) and the white. The former (e.g., the scarlet, pin, Spanish, willow, laurel, and shingle oaks) are characterized by leaves with sharp-tipped lobes and by acorns that mature in two years. The white oaks (e.g., the white, post, bur, cork, and holly oaks) are characterized by smooth-lobed leaves and acorns that mature in one year. Q. alba, the white oak, is the most important timber tree of the oak genus. Lumber-yielding species of chestnut (genus Castanea) are included in the white oak group when the term is used as a timber classification. The live oaks, evergreen species common in the S and SW United States, are sometimes considered a separate group. The bark of some oaks has been employed in medicine, in tanning, and for dyes; that of the cork oak supplies the cork of commerce. The galls caused by certain insects are utilized commercially. The Mediterranean kermes oak (Q. coccifera) is host to the kermes insect, source of the world's oldest dyestuff. Acorns, the fruit of oak trees, have long been employed as a source of hog feed, tannin (chiefly from valonia, the acorn cup of the Turkish oak, Q. aegilops), oil, and especially food. Acorns were one of the most important foods of the North American forest Native Americans; they were pulverized, leached to extract the bitter taste, and then cooked in various ways. Acorns have also been used as food in other regions where they are native. A symbol of strength, the oak has been revered for both historical and mythological associations. It was the favorite of Jove and Thor and especially sacred to the druids. St. Louis administered justice under an oak, and the Charter Oak is legendary in America. Several unrelated plants are also called oak, e.g., the Jerusalem oak (a lobe-leaved annual of the goosefoot family) and the poison oak of the sumac family (see poison ivy). Oaks are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Fagales, family Fagaceae.

Celery

Celery, biennial plant (Apium graveolens) of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), of wide distribution in the wild state throughout the north temperate Old World and much cultivated also in America. It was first cultivated as a medicinal, then (during the Middle Ages) as a flavoring, and finally as a food, chiefly for soups and salads. The seeds are still used for seasoning. Celeriac is a variety cultivated chiefly in N Europe for the large edible turniplike root. Celery is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Umbellales, family Umbelliferae.

Parsnip

Parsnip, garden plant (Pastinaca sativa) of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), native to the Old World. It has been cultivated since Roman times for its long, fleshy, edible root. Wine and beer have also been made from it. The wild form has become naturalized in North America, often proving a noxious weed. Parsnip is a biennial but is cultivated as an annual. The root can be left in the ground all winter without deterioration. It is also used as livestock feed. Parsnip is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Apiales, family Umbelliferae.