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THE CHERRIES
OF
fEWYORK
CHARLES DOWNING
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State OF New York— Department of Agriculture
Twenty-second AnnucJ Report — Vol. 2 — Part II
THE
CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
BY U. P. HEDRICK
ASSISTED BY
G. H. HOWE O. M. TAYLOR C. B. TUBERGEN R. WELLINGTON
Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1914
II
r.UBRARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL
GARDEN
ALBANY
J. B. LYON COMPANY. STATE PRINTERS
1915
.?1
C ' "^
NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,
Geneva, N. Y., January 12, 1915
To the Honorable Board of Control of the New York Agricultural Experi- ment Station:
Gentlemen : — I have the honor to transmit herewith the manu- script copy for Part II of the 33d Annual Report of this Station. This contribution is the fourth monograph on the fruits of New York State, prepared under your direction by the Horticulturist of this institution and his associates.
The cherry, which this manuscript discusses, is undoubtedly most widely grown of the tree-fruits of the State; for within easy reach of every rural housewife — in orchard or garden, along roadside or lane — the " pie cherry " will be found; and many a lawn, even in village or city, is graced by the stately trees which bear the delicious Yellow Spanish or Black Tartarian. In many parts of the State, also, cherry growing is an industry of much commercial importance, with orchards exceeded in value by those of the apple and peach alone.
Because of its widespread popularity and commercial importance the cherry well merits treatment in this place in the series of monographs. It is hoped and believed that the growers and lovers of the fruit will appre- ciate and utilize to good advantage the result here presented of years of painstaking work by the authors. The discussions are based not alone on Station experience with hundreds of the thousand or more varieties described, but as well upon the collected observations of many cherry growers and the expressed judgments of the leading pomologists who
have been interested in this fruit.
W. H. JORDAN,
Director
PREFACE
This is the fourth of the monographs on the fruits of temperate North America pubHshed by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. The nature and purposes of these treatises have been set forth in the pref- aces of preceding volumes, but a summary of the purposes, with needed emphasis on several, is given for the convenience of all readers and the enlightenment of those who may not have the first three books.
The Cherries of New York contains an historical account of cultivated cherries, the botany of this fnoit, a statement of its present economic status in America, descriptions of all known varieties of cherries, the synonymy and bibliography of the species and varieties, and biographical sketches of the per- sons who have contributed materially to cherry culture in America. The most important varieties are illustrated in colors. Everything that was thought would be helpfvil in breeding cherries has been included, and special search has been made for such material. So, too, whatever was thought to be of interest to students of ecology and of plant distribution has been added.
In the monographs on grapes and plums it was necessary to devote much space to the botanical relationship of these fruits since each contains more than a score of species vmder cultivation, some of which are scarcely known and most of which are extremely variable. The botany of culti- vated cherries is comparatively simple and has been made plain by botanical writers. Yet the contemplation of the several species from a horticultural standpoint adds something, we believe, to the botany of cherries, especially as concerns the forms of the Sweet Cherry and the Sour Cherry which have been variously treated by botanists.
As compared with their congeners, especially the plums, the economic species of cherries are remarkably well delimited, showing far less respon- siveness to environment and having seemingly less inherent variation, so that there need be little confusion in botanical classification. On the other hand varieties are so similar that it is only with the greatest difficulty that closely related sorts are distinguished and there is great confusion in the synonymy, the chief task of the present work being to distinguish the true names from the synonyms of the varieties described.
In The Cherries of New York, as in the preceding fruit books from this
VI PREFACE
Station, effort has been made to give as accurately as possible the region in which the species and varieties grow best and to set forth fully the local prejudices of the fruits. Such knowledge cannot but be of value in deter- mining the factors which govern the distribution of plants. The estabHsh- ment of community relationships and description of plant communities now constitute an important part of botany on the one side and of geography on the other. No phenomena give better expression of the climate and the soU of a region than plant communities. When monographs of several of the fruits of temperate North America shall have been completed, with state- ments of likes and dislikes of the fruits and their varieties as to climate and soil, material should be available to establish plant communities from which can be drawn valuable generalizations.
All, howsoever interested in pomology, are dependent upon descrip- tions of fruits. A well-made description of a fruit, to one mentally equipped to interpret it, is second only, in the study of pomology, to having the fruit itself. With but few exceptions the descriptions of the major varieties are made first hand from cherries growing on the Station grounds, though in many cases fruits from different localities have been compared with those home-grown.
Since there are fewer varieties of cherries than of plums, it has been possible to describe and illustrate a greater proportion of the sorts under cultivation than in the book on plums, yet a selection has had to be made of the worthiest of the many kinds. The choice of sorts for full descriptions and color-plates has been determined: (i) By the present value of the variety; (2) the probable value if the variety be a novelty; (3) by the value of the data to the cherry breeder; (4) because of historical value — to show what the trend of cherry evolution has been; (5) to show the relationships of species and varieties. The varieties not illustrated nor fully described are divided into two further groups in accordance with the same considerations.
In botanical nomenclature the code adopted by the International Botanical Congress, held at Vienna in 1905, has been used. In the use of horticultural names we have followed somewhat closely the rules of the American Pomological Society, though in many cases strict observance of these niles, poor at best, would have added to rather than lessened the confusion in horticultural nomenclature and, therefore, they have been honored in the breach rather than in the observance.
PREFACE VU
The references given are those that have been of use in ascertaining the history, the economic status, or the description of the variety that follows — no more, no fewer. These constitute a very small proportion of the references that have been read — a tremendous task involving two or three years' work for several persons.
So, too, it has been a herculean task to search out the synonyms of cherries. French, German, English and American books on pomology overflow with such synonyms and all in a state of " confusion worse con- fotmded." An enormous amount of work has been done in trying to bring order out of this confusion. Many of the synonyms of varieties have been given in times past because of adaptations to local environ- ment. Such naming of ecologic forms is not an unmixed evU, since it draws attention to variable varieties and characters which otherwise might be overlooked.
Under the ferment of MendeUan and De Vriesian ideas we seem to be at the beginning of an era of great improvement of plants. There have never been well-directed efforts to improve fruits, yet something has been done with all. Now, when there is an onrush of new discoveries in plant- breeding, seems to be a particularly opportune time to tell all that can be learned about how cherries have been brought from their wild state to their present perfection. This we try to do in giving the origin and history of varieties, especially as to parentage and maimer of origin, though such information is scant and very fragmentary.
As in the previous frvdt books some prominence is given in foot-notes to biography. A knowledge of the career of those who have been giants in their day in the development of any industry is most helpful to the best understanding, indeed, is almost indispensable to the fullest comprehension, of the industry. The short foot-notes, it is hoped, will serve to give some conception of what the master builders in pomology were like in training, character, and methods of work. From the reception which these sketches in former fruit books have received, the writers feel that the considerable expenditure of time and thought that these biographical notices have required is amply justified and that the effort to give credit due and some small honor to the promoters of pomology has been well worth while.
For aid in the preparation of The Cherries of New York I am especially indebted to those whose names appear on the title page, to my associate, Mr. R. D. Anthony, for reading proof; to the Station editor, Mr. F. H.
Vlll PREFACE
Hall, who has had charge of the proof reading; to Zeese-Wilkinson Com- pany, New York City, who have had an especially difficult task in making the color-plates and who have done the work well; and to the J. B. Lyon Company, Albany, New York, for their painstaking work in printing the
book.
U. P. HEDRICK,
Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface v
Index to Illustrations xi
Chapter I. — Cultivated Cherries i
Chapter II. — The History of Cultivated Cherries 39
Chapter III. — Cherry Culture 65
Chapter IV. — Leading Varieties of Cherries 97
Chapter V. — Minor Varieties of Cherries 205
Bibliography, References and Abbreviations 337
Index 347
ix
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait of Charles Downing Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Abbesse d'Oignies 98
Arch Duke 100
BiNG 104
Black Tartarian 108
Bourgueil 1 10
Brusseler Braune 112
Carnation 114
Coe 120
Double Natte 1 24
Downer 1 26
Dyehouse 126
Eagle 128
Early Purple 130
Early Richmond 132
Elton 136
Empress Eugenie 138
English Morello 140
Florence 140
George Glass 142
Ida 144
Kirtland 148
Knight 150
Lambert 152
Large Montmorency 1 54
Late Duke 156
Louis Philippe 158
May Duke 164
Mezel 168
Montmorency 170
Napoleon -. . . 172
NouvELLE Royale 1 74
TO.
Xll INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Olivet 1 76
OSTHEIM 178
Prunus avium (Double Flowering), Blossoms of 30
Prunus a vium (Mazzard) 72
Prunus a vium (Mazzard), Blossoms of 68
Prunus a vium (Yellow Spanish), Blossoms of 28
Prunus a vium X Prunus cerasus (Reine Hortense), Blossoms of. 32
Prunus cerasus (Amarelle Group), Blossoms of 24
Prunus cerasus (Morello Group), Blossoms of 26
Prunus mahaleb 74
Prunus mahaleb, Blossoms of 70
Prunus tomentosa 34
Reine Hortense 180
Republican 1 82
RocKPORT 182
Royal Duke 1 84
Schmidt 1 86
Short-Stem Montmorency 188
Sklanka 188
SuDA 192
Timme 192
Vladimir 194
Windsor 198
Wood 200
Yellow Spanish 202
NEW YORK BOTANICAL
GARDEN
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
CHAPTER I CULTIVATED CHERRIES
CHERRIES AND THEIR KINDRED
The genus Prunus plays a very important part in horticulture. It furnishes, in temperate climates, the stone-fruits, plants of ancient and mod- em agriciilture of which there are a score or more commonly cultivated and at least as many more sparingly grown for their edible fruits. Of these stone-fruits the species of cherries rank with those of the plum and the peach in commercial importance while the several botanical groups of the apricot and almond are less important, but hardly less well-known, members of this notable genus. Prunus is of interest, too, because the history of its edible species follows step by step the history of agriciolture. The domestication of its fruits from wild progenitors, most of which are still subjects of common observation, illustrates well the influences and conditions under which plants have generally been brought into domestication. The genus is also of more than ordinary note because the number of its economic species is being increased almost yearly by new-found treasures from North America and Asia, not varieties but species, which promise under future domestication still further to enrich horticulture.
The plum and the peach surpass the cherry in diversity of flavor, aroma, texture, color, form and size, characters which make fruits pleasant to the palate and beautiful to the eye; but the cherry, perhaps, plays a more important part than the plum or the peach in domestic economy. It has fewer prejudices as to soil and climate, hence is much more widely distributed and is more easily grown, being better represented in the or- chards and gardens in the regions where the three fruits grow. The cherry, too, fruits more quickly after planting, ripens earlier in the season and its varieties are more regular in bearing and usually more fruitful — charac- ters that greatly commend it to fruit-growing people. Probably it is the most popular of all fruits for the garden, dooryard, roadside and small orchard. All in all, while adorning a somewhat humbler place in pomology, it is more generally useful than the showier and more delicate plum and peach.
2 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Though placed by most botanists in the same genus, each of the stone- fruits constitutes a natural group so distinct that neither botanist nor fruit- grower could possibly take one for another as the trees and fruits of the dif- ferent groups are called to mind. But there are outstanding forms which seem to establish connections between the many species and the several groups of fruits and through these outliers the characters are so confounded in attempting to separate species that it becomes quickly apparent that there are few distinct lines of cleavage within the genus. For several centviries systematists have disputed as to whether the stone-fruits fall most naturally into one, two, or three genera — indeed have not been able to agree as to whether some species are plums or cherries, or others apricots or plums. Hybridization between the cultivated divisions of the genus — unques- tionably it has taken place in nature as well — has added to the perplexities of classification. Accepting, then, for the present at least, the very artificial classification which, rather paradoxically, places in one genus a number of fruits commonly thought of as quite distinct, let us briefly note the charac- ters which best distinguish cherries from their congeners.
The cherry is nearest of kin to the plum. These two are roughly separated from the other cultivated members of the genus to which they belong by bearing their fruits on stems in fascicles while the others are practically stemless and are solitary or borne in pairs. The fruits of plums and cherries are globular or oblong, succulent and smooth or nearly so. Peaches, apricots, nectarines and almonds are more silicate than plums and cherries and the almond has a drier flesh, splitting at maturity to liberate the stone; and, with the exception of nectarines and a few varieties of apricots, all are very pubescent. The stones of cherries and plums are smooth, or nearly so, while those of the other fruits are sculptured and pitted, though those of the apricot are often somewhat plum-like.
Cherries are separated from plums by their smaller size and distinctive color of skin, juice and flesh; by the texture and distinct flavor of the flesh; by growth in corymbose rather than umbelliferous fascicles; by the more globular stone; and by the arrangement of the leaves in the bud. Leaves of the plum are usually convolute, or rolled up, in the bud, while those of the cherry are conduplicate, or folded lengthwise along the midrib.
We have been discussing the cherries of common cultivation — the Sweet Cherry and Sour Cherry of the orchards, the fascicled cherries to which the botanists give the group name, Cerasus. But there is another group, the Padus cherries, well worthy of brief mention. The most note-
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 3
worthy representatives of Padus are the bird cherry (Prunus padiis) of the Old World and the choke cherry {Primus virginiana) of the New World. These Padus cherries are distinguished botanically in having their flowers borne in racemes, that is, in long clusters of which those nearest the base of the shoot open first — rather than in the short-clustered fascicles of the Cerasus group. The cherries are small and almost or quite black. The Padus cherries are but sparingly cvdtivated but undoubtedly they are capable of some improvement under more thorough cviltivation.
DISTRIBUTION OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES
The cherry is one of the most commonly cultivated of all fruits and the many varieties of its several forms encircle the globe in the North Temperate Zone and are being rapidly disseminated throughout the tem- perate parts of the Southern Hemisphere. For centuries it has been, as we shall see in the history of the species, one of the most valuable fruit- producing trees of Europe and Asia — an inhabitant of nearly every orchard and garden as well as a common roadside tree in temperate climates in both continents. From Europe, as a center of distribution, the cherry has played an important part in the orcharding in temperate regions of other continents. In North America varieties of the cherry are grown from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island on the north, to the Gulf of Cali- fornia, Texas and Florida on the south, yielding fruit in a greater diversity of soils and climates in Canada and the States of the Union than any other tree-fruit.
The Sour Cherry is very cosmopolitan, thriving in many soils; is able to withstand heat, cold and great atmospheric dryness, if the soil contain moistvire; and, though it responds to good care, it grows under neglect better than any other tree-fruit. The Sour Cherry, too, is rather less inviting to insects and fungi than most other stone-fruits, being practically immune to the dreaded San Jose scale. On the other hand the Sweet Cherry is very fastidious as to soils, is lacking in hardiness to both heat and cold and is prey to many insects and subject to all the ills to which stone-fruits are heir; it is grown at its best in but few and comparatively limited areas, though these are very widely distributed.
USES OF THE CHERRY
The cherry is a delectable early-summer fruit, especially grateful as a refreshing dessert and much valued in cookery, when fresh, canned, pre-
4 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
served or dried, for the making of pies, tarts, sauces and confections. Dur- ing the last few years, in America at least, the consumption of cherries has been enormously increased by the fashion of adding preserved cherries, as much for ornament as to give flavor, to many drinks and ices. The great bulk of the cherry crop now grown in America for commercial purposes is canned, the industry being more or less specialized in a few fruit regions. The demand for cherries for canning seems to be increasing greatly but unfortunately it calls for but few varieties, the Montmorency being the sort sought for among the Sour Cherries, while the hard-fleshed varieties of the Bigarreau type are in greatest demand among the Sweet Cherries.
The cherry, while a very common fruit in nearly all agricultioral regions of America, does not hold the place in American markets as a fresh fruit that it does in the towns and cities of Europe. The great abundance of strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, dewberries, blackberries, as well as early varieties of tree fruits, makes keener here than abroad the competition in the fruit markets during cherry time. The fact, too, that market fruits in America are shipped long distances, for which the cherry is not well adapted, helps to explain the relatively small regard in which this fruit has been held for commercial piH"poses in the fresh state. In recent years, however, both Sweet Cherries and Sovir Cherries, the former in particular, have been sent to the markets in far greater abundance, the impetus to their market value being due to a better product — better varieties, hence greater demand — and to greatly improved facilities for shipping and holding for sale.
In Europe several liqueurs are very commonly made from cherries both for home and commercial uses. Such is not the case in America, where, except in very limited quantities in which unfermented cherry juices are used in the home, this fruit is not used in liqueur-making. In some of the countries of Europe, wine is made from the juice; a spirit, kirschwasser,^ is distilled from the fermented pulp as an article for both home and commerce; and ratafias and cordials are very generally flavored with cherries. In the Austrian province of Dalmatia a liqueur or cordial called maraschino ^ is made by a secret process of fermentation and distil-
' Kirschwasser as a commercial article is made chiefly on the upper Rhine from the wild black Sweet Cherrj- {Primus avium). In its manufacture, fruit — -flesh and kernels — is mashed into a pulp which is allowed to ferment. By distillation from this fermented pulp a colorless liqueur is obtained.
^ Maraschino is a liqueur, or cordial, made from the fruit and leaves of the small, sour, black Marasca cherry. The product comes chiefly from Zara, the capital of the Austrian province of Dalmatia, where it has been made and exported for over 200 years. Such accounts of the process of making maraschino
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 5
lation. This liquevir is imported in America in considerable quantities to flavor preservatives in which the home-grown cherries are prepared for use in various drinks and confections. No attempts have been made to grow the Marasca cherry on a commercial scale in America but undoubtedly it could be grown and, with the process of making maraschino discovered, an important use would be developed for cherries — all the more to be desired since the foreign maraschino is now grossly adulterated and imitated in this country. Both the fruits and seeds of cherries, especially of the Mahaleb, are steeped in spirits for food, drink and medicinal purposes. An oil used in making perfumes for scenting soaps and confectionery is also extracted from the seeds of the Mahaleb because of which use this species is often called the " Perfumed Cherry."
In the old herbals and pomologies much is made of the value of cherries for medicinal pvuposes. The fruit was supposed to be a sovereign remedy for various ailments of the digestive tract as well as for nervous disorders
as have become public seem to agree that the liqueur is a distillation of a compote made from the fruit and young leaves. When ripe the cherries are picked early in the morning and sent at once to the distiller^' where the stones are extracted by machinery. The leaves are cut, pressed and added to the fruit with sugar and alcohol. This mixture is allowed to ferment for six months or thereabouts and from it is then distilled maraschino. It is then stored in cellars for three years before being placed on the markets. In both Europe and America there are many imitations of the maraschino liqueur in which neither fruit nor foliage of the Marasca nor any other cherry has any part.
According to the Dalmatians all attempts to improve the Marasca cherry by culture have failed. They say, too, that it will not thrive elsewhere than in Dalmatia. Under culture, the fruits and leaves lose their distinctive aroma and taste as they do on any but the native soil of the variety. The poorer, sparser and more rocky the ferruginous soil, the wilder the tree, the smaller and sourer the cherries, the better the maraschino liqueur — so the present makers say.
Since considerable quantities of cherries are put up in America in maraschino, or its imitation, and the manufacture of such products is a growing industry, the following ruling by the Board of Food and Drug Inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture, taken from Food Inspection Decision 141, is of interest to growers, canners and users of cherries:
" In considering the products prepared from the large light-colored cherry of the Napoleon Bigarreau, or Royal Anne type, which are artifically colored and flavored and put up in a sugar sirup, flavored with various materials, the Board has reached the conclusion that this product is not properly entitled to be called ' Maraschino Cherries,' or ' Cherries in Maraschino.' If, however, these cherries are packed in a sirup, flavored with maraschino alone, it is the opinion of the Board that they would not be misbranded, if labeled ' Cherries, Maraschino Flavor,' or ' Maraschino Flavored Cherries.' If these cherries are packed in maraschino liqueur there would be no objection to the phrase ' Cherries in Maraschino.' When these artificially colored cherries are put up in a sirup flavored in imitation of maraschino, even though the flavoring may consist in part of maraschino, it would not be proper to use the word ' Maraschino ' in connection with the product unless preceded by the word ' Imitation.' They may, however, be labeled to show that they are a preserved cherry, artificially colored and flavored.
" The presence of artificial coloring or flavoring matter, of any substitute for cane sugar, and the presence and amount of benzoate of soda, when used in these products must be plainly stated upon the label in the manner provided in Food Inspection Decisions Nos. 52 and 104."
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4 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
served or dried, for the making of pies, tarts, sauces and confections. Dur- ing the last few years, in America at least, the consumption of cherries has been enormously increased by the fashion of adding preserved cherries, as much for ornament as to give flavor, to many drinks and ices. The great bulk of the cherry crop now grown in America for commercial ptirposes is canned, the industry being more or less specialized in a few frmt regions. The demand for cherries for canning seems to be increasing greatly but unfortunately it calls for but few varieties, the Montmorency being the sort sought for among the Sour Cherries, while the hard-fleshed varieties of the Bigarreau type are in greatest demand among the Sweet Cherries.
The cherry, while a very common fruit in nearly all agricultural regions of America, does not hold the place in American markets as a fresh fruit that it does in the towns and cities of Etirope. The great abundance of strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, dewberries, blackberries, as well as early varieties of tree fruits, makes keener here than abroad the competition in the fruit markets during cherry time. The fact, too, that market fruits in America are shipped long distances, for which the cherry is not well adapted, helps to explain the relatively small regard in which this fruit has been held for commercial purposes in the fresh state. In recent years, however, both Sweet Cherries and Sour Cherries, the former in particular, have been sent to the markets in far greater abundance, the impetus to their market value being due to a better product — • better varieties, hence greater demand — and to greatly improved facilities for shipping and holding for sale.
In Europe several liqueurs are very commonly made from cherries both for home and commercial uses. Such is not the case in America, where, except in very limited quantities in which unfermented cherry juices are used in the home, this fruit is not used in liqueur-making. In some of the countries of Europe, wine is made from the juice; a spirit, kirschwasser,' is distilled from the fermented pulp as an article for both home and commerce ; and ratafias and cordials are very generally flavored with cherries. In the Austrian province of Dalmatia a liqueur or cordial called maraschino ^ is made by a secret process of fermentation and distil-
' Kirschwasser as a commercial article is made chiefly on the upper Rhine from the wild black Sweet Cherry {Prunus avium). In its manufacture, fruit — flesh and kernels — is mashed into a pulp which is allowed to ferment. By distillation from this fermented pulp a colorless liqueur is obtained.
^ Maraschino is a liqueur, or cordial, made from the fruit and leaves of the small, sour, black Marasca cherry. The product comes chiefly from Zara, the capital of the Austrian province of Dalmatia, where it has been made and exported for over 200 years. Such accounts of the process of making maraschino
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THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 5
lation. This liqueur is imported in America in considerable quantities to flavor preservatives in which the home-grown cherries are prepared for use in various drinks and confections. No attempts have been made to grow the Marasca cherry on a commercial scale in America but undoubtedly it could be grown and, with the process of making maraschino discovered, an important use would be developed for cherries — all the more to be desired since the foreign maraschino is now grossly adulterated and imitated in this country. Both the frtiits and seeds of cherries, especially of the Mahaleb, are steeped in spirits for food, drink and medicinal purposes. An oil used in making perfumes for scenting soaps and confectionery is also extracted from the seeds of the Mahaleb because of which use this species is often called the " Perfumed Cherry."
In the old herbals and pomologies much is made of the value of cherries for medicinal ptirposes. The fruit was supposed to be a sovereign remedy for various ailments of the digestive tract as well as for nervous disorders
as have become public seem to agree that the Hqueur is a distillation of a compote made from the fruit and young leaves. When ripe the cherries are picked early in the morning and sent at once to the distillery where the stones are extracted by machinery. The leaves are cut, pressed and added to the fruit with sugar and alcohol. This mLxture is allowed to ferment for six months or thereabouts and from it is then distilled maraschino. It is then stored in cellars for three years before being placed on the markets. In both Europe and America there are many imitations of the maraschino liqueur in which neither fruit nor foliage of the Marasca nor any other cherry has any part.
According to the Dalmatians all attempts to improve the Marasca cherry by culture have failed. They say, too, that it will not thrive elsewhere than in Dalmatia. Under culture, the fruits and leaves lose their distinctive aroma and taste as they do on any but the native soil of the variety. The poorer, sparser and more rocky the ferruginous soil, the wilder the tree, the smaller and sourer the cherries, the better the maraschino liqueur — so the present makers say.
Since considerable quantities of cherries are put up in America in maraschino, or its imitation, and the manufacture of such products is a growing industry, the following ruling by the Board of Food and Drug Inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture, taken from Food Inspection Decision 141, is of interest to growers, canners and users of cherries:
" In considering the products prepared from the large light-colored cherry of the Napoleon Bigarreau, or Royal Anne type, which are artifically colored and flavored and put up in a sugar sirup, flavored with various materials, the Board has reached the conclusion that this product is not properly entitled to be called ' Maraschino Cherries,' or ' Cherries in Maraschino.' If, however, these cherries are packed in a sirup, flavored with maraschino alone, it is the opinion of the Board that they would not be misbranded, if labeled ' Cherries, Maraschino Flavor,' or ' Maraschino Flavored Cherries.' If these cherries are packed in maraschino liqueur there would be no objection to the phrase ' Cherries in Maraschino.' When these artificially colored cherries are put up in a sirup flavored in imitation of maraschino, even though the flavoring may consist in part of maraschino, it would not be proper to use the word ' Maraschino ' in connection with the product unless preceded by the word ' Imitation.' They may, however, be labeled to show that they are a preserved cherry, artificially colored and flavored.
" The presence of artificial coloring or flavoring matter, of any substitute for cane sugar, and the presence and amount of benzoate of soda, when used in these products must be plainly stated upon the label in the manner provided in Food Inspection Decisions Nos. 52 and 104."
4" *•■
6 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
and epilepsy. The astringent leaves and bark, or extracts from them, were much used by the ancients in medicine and are still more or less employed both as home remedies and in the practice of medicine as mild tonics and sedatives. One of the active chemicals of the leaf, seed and bark is hydrocyanic acid to which is largely due the peculiar odor of these structures. A gum is secreted from the trunks of cherry trees, known in commerce as cerasin, which has some use in medicine and in various trades as well, especially as a substitute and as an adulterant of gum arabic.
At least three cultivated cherry trees produce wood of considerable value. The wood of the cherry is hard, close-grained, solid, durable, a handsome pale red, or brown tinged with red. Primus avium, the Sweet Cherry, furnishes a wood which, if sufficient care be taken to season it, is of much value in cabinet-making and for the maniifacture of musical instruments. Prunus mahaleh is a much smaller tree than the former but its wood, as much as there is of it, is even more valuable, being very hard and fragrant and dark enough in color to take on a beautiful mahogany- like polish. In France the wood of the Mahaleb cherry is held in high esteem, under the name Bois de St. Lucie, in cabinet-making and for toys, canes, handles and especially for the making of tobacco pipes. In Japan the wood of Prunus pseudocerasus is said to be in great demand for engraving and in making the blocks used in printing cloth and wall-paper. In America the wood of the orchard species of cherries is seldom used for domestic purposes, that of the wild species being so much more cheaply obtainable and serving all purposes quite as well.
To people who know it only for its fruit, the cherry does not appear particvilarly desirable as an ornamental. But wild and cultivated cherries furnish many beautiful trees in a genus peculiar for the beauty of its species. The color and abundance of the flowers, fruits and leaves of the cultivated cherries and the fact that they are prolific of forms with double flowers, weeping, fastigiate or other ornamental habits, make the several species of this plant valuable as ornamentals. Besides, they are vigorous and rapid in growth, hardy, easy of culture, comparatively free from pests and adapted to a great diversity of soils and climates. Both the ornamental and the edible cherries are very beautiful in spring when abundantly covered with flowers, which usually open with the unfolding leaves, as well as throughout the summer when overspread with lustrous green foliage and most of them are quite as conspicuously beautiful in the autumn
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 7
when the leaves turn from green to light and dark tints of red. All will agree that a cherry tree in full fruit is a most beautiful object. In the winter when the leaves have fallen, some of the trees, especially of the ornamental varieties, are very graceful and beautiful, others are often picturesque, and even the somewhat stiff and formal Sweet Cherries are attractive plants in the garden or along the roadside.
Very acceptable jellies, sauces and preserves are made from several of the wild cherries in the Padus group. The peasantry of the Eastern Hemi- sphere have in times of need found them important foods as have also the American Indians at all times. The fruits of some of the species of Padus are quite commonly used in flavoring liquevirs and on both continents are sometimes fermented and distilled into a Hquexir similar to kirschwasser. The bark of different parts of the trees of this group is valuable in medicine — at least is largely used. The trees of several species form handsome ornamentals and some of them are in commerce for the purpose. Primus serotina, one of the group, because of the strength of its wood and the beautiful satiny polish which its surface is capable of receiving, is a valuable timber tree of American forests. For the products of the members of this group, as just set forth, the domestication of some of the species of Padus might well be pushed.
LITERATURE OF THE CHERRY
Despite the important part they have played in orcharding since the domestication of fruits in temperate zones, as shown by their history and their present popularity, pomological writers have singularly neglected cherries. There are relatively few European books devoted to them and in America, while there are treatises on all others of the common tree-fruits, the cherry alone seems not to have inspired some pomologist to print a book. Neither are the discussions in general pomologies as full and accu- rate as for other fruits. The reason for this neglect is that the cherry, until the last decade or two, has scarcely been a fruit of commerce, having been grown almost entirely for home use or at most for the local market. As a result of this neglect of the cherry by students of pomology, we have no authoritative nor serviceable system of classification of the varieties of cherries and the nomenclature of this fruit is in an appalling state of con- fusion, as a glance at the synonymy of some of the older varieties discussed in The Cherries of New York will show.
8 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
AMELIORATION OF THE CHERRY
The amelioration of the cherry has been in progress almost since the dawn of civilization, yet few men have directed their efforts toward the improvement of this fruit. The histories of the varieties described in The Cherries of New York show that nearly all of them have come from chance seedlings. Possibly there has been little interest in improving cherries because this fruit is comparatively immutable in its characters.
In spite of the fact that there are a great number of varieties, 1,145 being described in The Cherries of New York, this of all stone-fruits is most fixed in its characters. The differences between tree and fruit in the many varieties are less marked than in the other fruits of Prunus and the varieties come more nearly true to seed. Though probably domesticated as long ago as any other of the tree-fruits, the cherry is now most of all like its wild progenitors. The phim is very closely related to the cherry but it has varied in nature and under cultivation much more than the cherry and in accordance with different environments has developed more marked differences in its species to endure the conditions brought about by the topographical and climatic changes through which the earth has passed. Under domestication more than twice as many orchard varieties of the plum have come into being as of the cherry. In spite of this stability, there are ample rewards in breeding cherries to those who will put in prac- tice rightly directed efforts to improve this fruit — a statement substan- tiated by the histories of some of the best varieties, described later in this text, which were originated through what was passing as ctorrent coin in plant-breeding before the far better methods of the present time, brought about by Mendel's discovery, came into being.
The cherry, as the histories of its many diverse kinds show, has been improved only through new varieties. There is no evidence, whatever, to show that any one of the several hundred cherries described in this text has been improved by selection as a cumulative process, or, on the other hand, that any one of them has cumulatively degenerated. Of varieties cultivated for their fruits there are no records of mutations either from the seed or from bud, though of the ornamental cherries not a few have arisen as bud-mutations, as, for example, the several double-flowered cherries and those of weeping or fastigiate habit of growth and the many sorts with abnormally colored foliage. Since improvement depends upon the bring- ing into being of new cherries it becomes highly important to know
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 9
how the varieties we are deahng with in Tlie Cherries of New York have come into existence. The following is a summary of their manner of origin: —
No case is recorded in The Cherries of New York of a variety known to have come from self-fertilized seed.
The seed parent is given for 6i varieties. The statements as to seed parents are probably accurate, for a man planting cherry seeds would record the name of the seed parent correctly if he knew it.
The seed and pollen parents of twenty of the cherries described in this work are given. Sixteen of these are hybrids originating with Professor N. E. Hansen of South Dakota, leaving but four sorts the parents of which were known before the recent work of Professor Hansen.
No cherry cultivated for its fruit is reported to have come from a sport or a bud-mutation.
Cherries arising from seed sown without knowledge of either parent or from natural seedlings are put down as chance seedlings; of these there are 147.
The origin of 917 of the varieties here described is unknown.
The total number of cherries under discussion is 1,145.
To improve the cherry the breeder must know the material with which he is working. The following is a brief discussion of the characters of this fruit to be found in the technical descriptions of species and varieties.
TREE AND FRUIT CHARACTERS OF THE CHERRY
Species of cherries have very characteristic trees. The merest glance at the tree enables one to tell the Sweet Cherry, Primus avium, from the Soior Cherry, Primus cerasus. The first named is the larger of the two, especially reaching a greater height, is pyramidal in shape, with branches erect and bearing much less foliage than the Sour Cherry. The Sweet Cherry often lives for a century or more — the Sour Cherry attains but the three score years and ten of man. Primus cerasus is easily distin- guished from Pnmus avium by its comparatively low, roundish and never pyramidal head. So, too, many of the varieties of either of these two species are readily told in the orchard by the size or habit of the plant. Other species are either shrubby or tree-like and their varieties may often be identified from the spaciousness or dwarfness of its trees, ^ize is rather more variable than other gross characters because of the influence of environment • — food, moisture, light, isolation, pests and the like — yet
10 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
size in a plant, or in the parts of a plant, is a very reliable character when proper allowances have been made for environment.
Habit of growth, unlike size, varies but little with changing conditions and thus becomes a most important means of distinguishing species and varieties and not infrequently sets the seal and sign of desirability for an orchard cherry. More than any other character, habit of growth gives what is called " aspect " to a cherry tree. Thus, a species or a variety may be upright, spreading, roimd-topped, drooping or weeping in habit of growth; the head may be open or dense and may be formed by a central shaft with several whorls of branches or by three or four trunk-like stems each with its scaffolding branches. The trees may grow rapidly or slowly and may be long-lived or short-lived. The trunks may be short and stocky, or long and slender, straight or crooked, gnarled or smooth, these characters often determining whether a cherry is manageable or unmanageable in the orchard.
The degree of hardiness is a very important diagnostic character for groups of cherries and often wholly indicates their value for agriculture. Thus, the varieties of Primus avium are but little hardier than the peach while those of Prunus cerasus are as hardy or hardier than the apple. The range of varieties as to hardiness falls within that of the species and it is interesting to note that in Europe, where the wild Prunus avium is very common, in the many centuries since the fruit has been under domestication, a cultivated variety hardier than the wild Sweet Cherry has not been developed. Cherries are designated in the technical descriptions as hardy, half-hardy and tender.
Productiveness, age of bearing, and regularity of bearing are distinctive and valuable characters of orchard cherries but not of wild cherries. The care given the tree greatly influences fruitfulness, yet the quantity of fruit produced is often a helpful means of identifying a variety and is a charac- ter that must always be considered by the plant-breeder. Age of bearing and regularity of bearing are most important characters with the pome fruits, the apple, in particular, but while worth considering with the drupes are of relatively little value, all drupaceous fruits coming in bearing at about the same time for the species and all bearing regularly, as a rule, unless interfered with by some outside agency preventing the setting or causing the dropping of fruit.
Immunity and susceptibility to diseases and insects are valuable taxonomic characters of both species and varieties of cultivated cherries.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK II
Thus, the varieties of Primus cerastes are very susceptible to black knot {Plowrightia morbosa), while those of Primus avium are almost immune. On the other hand, Primus avium is an inviting prey to San Jose scale {Aspidiotus perniciosus) , while Prunus cerasus is but little injured, indeed, seldom attacked; Prunus mahaleb appears to be almost wholly immune to the powdery mildew {Podosphaera oxyacanthae) , while Primus avium and Prunus cerasus are much attacked, though Wood, a variety of Prunus avium, is almost immune. The English Morello, a variety of Prunus cerasus, is very subject to leaf spot {Cylindrosporium padi), while Mont- morency, of the same species, is nearly immune. These examples can be multiplied many times by references to the discussions of varieties, and represent only observations on the grounds and in the neighborhood of this Station. They serve to show the great importance, to the fruit- grower, the plant-breeder and the systematist, of natural resistance to disease and insects.
Both the outer and the inner bark have considerable value in deter- mining species but are of little importance in identifying varieties and have no economic value to the fruit-grower and hence but little to the breeder. Smoothness, color, thickness and manner of exfoliation are the attributes of the outer bark to be noted, while the color of the inner bark is the only determinant and that relatively unimportant. In young trees the bark of the cherry of all species is smooth, glossy or even brilliant; but later it becomes uneven, scaly and dull, usually ash-gray but varying in all of these characters to an extent well worth noting for taxonomic purposes. Cherries, in common with most trees, have a lighter colored bark in cold than in warm regions, and in dry than in wet areas.
Branches and branchlets are very characteristic in both species and varieties. The length, thickness, direction, rigidity and the branching angle are valuable determining characters and very stable ones, changing but little even with marked variations of soil and climate. Thus, a Sweet Cherry tree can be told from a tree of the Sour Cherry, or the English Morello can be distinguished from Montmorency by branch characters as far as the outlines of the trees are discernible. Few cherries bear spines but all are more or less spurred and these spurs are quite characteristic even in varieties. With the branchlets the length of the intemodes should be considered and their direction, whether straight or zigzag; also color, smoothness, amount of pubescence, size and appearance of the lenticels, the presence of excrescences, are all to be noted in careful study though
12 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
all are more or less variable, pubescence especially so, this character being too often relied upon in descriptions by European botanists and pomologists.
Leaf-buds vary greatly in different species in size, shape, color of the buds and of their outer and inner scales and in the outline of the scales. The angle at which the bud stands out from the branchlet is of some taxonomic value. Vernation, or the disposition of the leaf-blade in the bud, is a fine mark of distinction in separating the cherry from other stone-fruits and while all cherry leaves are supposed to be conduplicate, that is, folded by the midrib so that the two halves are face to face, yet there are slight but important differences in the conduplication of the leaves in both species and varieties. The manner of bearing buds — whether single, in pairs, or in rosettes — must be taken into account, with species at least, and differences in shape and position of leaf and fruit- buds must be noted.
Leaves in their season are very evident and either collectively or individually are valuable determinants of species and varieties. Fruit- growers take little note of leaves, however, though they should be taken into practical account, since their size and number often indicate the degree of vigor. The variability of leaves is usually within limits easily set and occurs most often in young plants, in extremes of soil and climate, and on very succulent growths or water-sprouts. Leaf-size is the most variable character of this organ but is yet dependable in separating several species, as, for example, Prunus avium from Prunus cerasits, the leaves being very much larger in the former than in the latter species. Leaf-forms are very constant in species and varieties, hence especially valuable in classification.
Much care has been taken to illustrate accurately the size and form of cherry leaves in the color-plates in this text but it is impossible to reproduce by color-printing the tints of the leaves, though these are quite constant in both species and varieties.
Other characters of leaves taken into account in describing cherries are thickness, roughness, and pubescence, all of which are somewhat variable, being greatly influenced by climate and soil. Quite too much stress is laid upon the value of pubescence on leaves in determining groups, unless comparisons can be made between plants growing in the same habitat. Possibly more important than any other part of the leaf-blade, in the study of species at least, is the margin. This in the cherry is
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK I3
always serrated and often sub-serrated. These serrations are best studied at the middle of the sides of the leaves, those at the base and apex often being crowded or wanting.
The petiole may be used to good advantage in distinguishing both species and varieties. Thus, in consequence of the great length and slender- ness of the petiole of leaves of Sweet Cherries, the leaves are always more or less drooping, while those of the Sour Cherry are usually erect by reason of the petiole being short and strong. The color of the petiole is said by some to be correlated with that of the fruit — a statement that needs verification. The pubescence of the petiole must be noted.
The position, size, shape and color of the glands on cherry leaves must be noted as they are fairly constant guides. They are usually on the petiole at the base of the leaf but are sometimes on the leaf itself. The glands are commonly given as globular or reniform in shape but there are often intermediate forms the shape of which is hard to classify.
Stipules in this plant have considerable taxonomic value, having some distinguishing marks not possessed by the leaves. Cherry leaves spring- ing from dormant leaf-buds have very small stipules, sometimes so minute as hardly to be seen, but on the current year's growth the stipules are larger, being largest at the tip of the branchlet. There is considerable difference in the size of these organs in varieties of the same species. Stipules of the cherry are nearly always borne in pairs. The small stipioles, appearing with the first leaves, drop, at this Station, about the middle of June while those accompanying the later leaves on the wood growth of the current year remain until in July, there being a difference in varieties as to how long they remain. All stipules are deeply toothed and bear glands of varying color and shape on the serrations, the characters of both serrations and glands offering some distinguishing marks for species and varieties.
The flowers of cherries are very characteristic, as a study of the color- plates of blossoms will show, furnishing a wholly distinctive mark of species and helping to distinguish varieties. The flowers are hermaphro- dites and are borne in more or less dense, corymbose clusters. Individual flowers in species and varieties vary in size, shape, color and odor. The peduncles are long or short, as the case may be; the corolla furnishes distinctions in size, shape and color of petals; the calyces are chiefly dis- tinguished by their glands and the amount and character of the pubescence; while stamens and pistils offer differences in size, color of their different
14 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
parts and in the number of stamens. In plums the reproductive organs differ greatly in ability to perform their functions, some varieties being self-sterile. In New York there seem to be no marked differences in fecundity in cherries nor are there so frequently the malformations of reproductive organs which are found in plums. The season of flowering is a fine mark of distinction between species and varieties, a fact well brought out by the chart on pages 80-81.
Of all organs, the fruit of the cherry is most responsive to changed conditions and hence most variable, yet the fruits furnish very valuable taxonomic characters in both botany and pomology. In pomology, in particular, the fruits must be closely studied. Size, shape, color, bloom, stem, cavity, apex, suture and skin are the outward characters of which note must be made; while the color, aroma, flavor and texture of the flesh are usually very characteristic. Both species and varieties are well dis- tinguished by the time of ripening though there is much variation in ripening dates. The keeping quality is scarcely taken into account with cherries but varies a great deal, chiefly in accordance with firmness of the flesh. The flesh of cherries, as in all drupaceous fruits, clings to the stone or is wholly or partly free — a character of interest both to the systematist and to the fruit-grower. The color of the juice, whether colorless or red, is a plain and certain dividing line in both species and varieties.
The pits of cherries are rather more lacking in distinction than in other stone-fruits, plums for example, yet they must be accounted of considerable value in determination and for this reason have been included in all of the color-plates of varieties. Cherry-pits from individual trees are almost lacking in differences except in size but between species and varieties show many distinctions not only in size but in shape, surfaces, grooves and ridges, in the ends and more or less in the seeds within. Cherries of any variety grown on poor soils or in incongenial climates tend to have large stones and little flesh, while the pits are smaller and there is more flesh with the opposite extremes in environment. As will be pointed out in the discussion of the group of cherries known as the Dukes, many varieties have pits with shrunken and abortive seeds coming, as we think, from the hybrid origin of these cherries.
The several pages given to the discussion of the characters of cherries are in preparation for a proper understanding of the classifications and descriptions of species and varieties. We are now ready for the classifi- cation of the species of cherries which contribute or may contribute forms
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 5
for cultivation either for their fruits or as stocks upon which to grow edible cherries. The following is a brief conspectus of the edible species of Prunus followed by a fuller conspectus of the sub-genus Cerasus to which cherries belong.
A CLASSIFICATION OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES
The genus Prunus is variously delimited and divided by systematic botanists. A simple, and from a horticultural point of view, a very satis- factory classification, is to put almonds and peaches in one sub-genus (Amygdalus), cherries in a second (Cerasus), plums and apricots in a third (Euprunus), and to place the racemose cherries and cherry-laurels, usually considered in Prunus, in another genus, Padus. In this division of Prunus into three sub-genera we may assign to each the following characters.
A. Leaves convolute, i. e., rolled in the bud (showing best in the opening buds).^ Euprunus. Plums and apricots. A. A. Leaves conduplicate, i. e., folded lengthwise along the midrib in the bud.
B. Fruit more or less dry and hirsute; if juicy or glabrous the blossoms appear long before the opening of the leaves; fruits without stems. Amygdalus. Almonds and peaches. B.B. Fruit always juicy and usually glabrous; blooms appearing with the leaves. Cerasus. Cherries.
Of these several divisions we are here concerned only with Cerasus, to which belong all fascicled cherries, the racemose, or Padus, cherries as yet having little or no value as esculents. The genus Prunus is from year to year being enlarged by the discovery of new species, the additions to Cerasus in particular being numerous. Thus, a decade ago, botanists placed in this sub-genus, at the outside, not more than a score of species but Koehne, the most recent monographer of Cerasus, describes 119 species. Of Koehne's species at least a dozen are more or less cultivated for their fruits and a score or more are grown as ornamentals.
The following species are listed by Koehne:"
' The leaves are conduplicate in vernation in a few species of American plums; these species are intermediate between plums and cherries.
^ The species are given as classified by Koehne, Plantae Wilsonianae Vt. 2:237-271. 1912. The liberty has been taken of changing the form of Koehne's citations to conform to that used at this Station. For the sake of brevity some of the citations of the original author have been omitted. Space does not permit the publication of Koehne's system of classification. This may be found in Plantae Wilsonianae VX. 2:226-237. 1912.
Conservative botanists will hardly accept all of Koehne's species, in describing which the author tells us he labored under the difficulty of paucity of material and that as more material comes to hand there
l6 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
SPECIES OF CHERRIES
Div. I. TYPOCERASUS Koehne.
Sect. I. CREMASTOSEPALUM Koehne.
Subsect. I. AIAHALEB Koehne. Cerasus sect. Mahaleb Roemer. Fam. Nat. Syn. 3:79. 1847. Prtiniis subgen. Cerasus sect. Mahaleb Koehne. Deutsche Dendr. 305. 1893. Ser. I. EuM.\HALEB Koehne.
1. Prunus mahaleb Linnaeus. Sp. PI. 472. 1753. Europe, Western Asia.
Ser. 2. Param.\haleb Koehne.
2. Prunus mollis Walpers. Rep. 2:9. Western North America.
3. Prunus emarginata Walpers. Rep. 2:9. Western North America. Cerasus calif ornica Greene. Fl. Francis 1:50.
4. Prunus pennsylvanica Linnaeus. Syst. ed 13 SuppL 252. Eastern North America.
Subsect. 2. EUCERASUS Koehne. Prunus sect. Eucerasus Koehne. Deutsche Dendr. 306. 1893.
5. Prunus fruticosa Pallas. Fl. Ross. 1:19. 1784. Europe to Siberia.
6. Prunus acida C. Koch. Dendr. 1:112. 1869. Southern Europe.
7. Prunus cerasus Linnaeus. Sp. PL 474. 1753. Europe, Western Asia.
8. Prunus avium Linnaeus. Fl. Svec. ed 2:165. 1755. Europe, Western Asia.
Subsect. 3. PHYLLOMAHALEB Koehne. Ser. I. Aphanadenium Koehne.
9. Prunus maximowiczii Ruprecht. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 15:131. 1857. Prunus bracteata Franchet & Savatier. Enuin. PL Jap. 2:329. 1879.
Prunus apelala Zabel. Alilt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 13:60 (not Franchet & Savatier) 1904. Amur,
eastern Manchuria, Korea, Saghalin, Japan from Hokkaido to Kiushiu. Prunus maximowiczii aperta Komarow. Act. Hort. Pelrop. 22:5, 48. 1904. Manchuria from the Ussuri through Kirin to Mukden and northern Korea ID. Prunus pulchella Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:197. 1912. Western Hupeh. Ser. 2. Macradenium Koehne.
11. Prunus conadenia Koehne. /. c. 197. Western Szechuan.
12. Prunus pleiocerasus Koehne. I. c. 198. Western Szechuan.
13. Prunus macradenia Koehne. I. c. 199. Western Szechuan.
14. Prunus discadenia Koehne. I. c. 200. Western Hupeh.
15. Prunus szechuanica Batalin. Act. Hort. Pelrop. 14:167. 1895. Szechuan.
Subsect. 4. PHYLLOCERASUS Koehne.
16. Prunus tatsienensis Batalin. .Act. Hort. Petrop. 14:322. 1897. Szechuan. Prunus tatsienensis adenophora (Franchet) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:238. 191 2. Prunus maximowiczii adenophora Franchet. PL Delavay. 195. 1889. Yunnan.
Prunus tatsienensis stenadenla Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:201. 1912. Western Szechuan.
17. Prunus variabilis Koehne. I. c. 201. Western Hupeh.
18. Prunus pilosiuscula (Schneider) Koehne. I. c. 202.
Prunus tatsienensis pilosiuscula Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:66. 1905. Western Hupeh and Szechuan.
19. Prunus polytricha Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:204. 1912. Western Hupeh.
20. Prunus rehderiana Koehne. /. c. 205. Western Hupeh.
21. Prunus venusta Koehne. I. c. 239. Western Hupeh.
22. Prunus litigiosa Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:65. 1905. Hupeh.
Prunus litigiosa abbreviata Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:205. 1912. Western Hupeh.
23. Prunus clarofolia Schneider. Fedde i?ep. Nov. Sp. 1:67. 1905. Szechuan.
must, therefore, be revisions. These species are provisionally accepted in The Cherries of New York under the belief that botany and horticulture are best served by giving names freely so that all forms to which reference may need to be made may thus be better identified.
The botanical student of Cerasus is referred to Schneider's comprehensive discussion of Prunus in his Handbuch der Laubholzkunde 1:589-637. 1906 and 2:973-993; also Koehne's monographs of Cerasus, Sargent, C. S., Plantae WilsonianaePt. 2:197-271. 1912. Profitable *:hough it might be, space does not permit in The Cherries of New York a botanical discussion of other than the species cultivated for their fruits.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 7
Subsect. 5. PSEUDOMAHALEB Koehne.
24. Primus yunnanensis Franchet. PL Delavay. 195. 1889. Yunnan.
25. Prvinus macgregoriana Koehne. Plant. Wils. Ft. 2:240. 1912. Western Hupeh.
26. Primus henryi (Schneider) Koehne. I. c. 240.
Prunus yunnanensis henryi C. K. Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:66 (in part) 1905. Yunnan.
27. Prunus neglecta Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:241. 191 2.
Prunus yunnanensis henryi C. K. Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. i:66 (in part) 1905. Yunnan. Subsect. 6. LOBOPETALUM Koehne. Ser. I. Heterocalyx Koehne.
28. Prunus scopulorum Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:241. 1912. Western Hupeh. 39. Prunus glabra (Pampanini) Koehne.
Prunus hirtipes glabra Pampanini. Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ilal. 17:293. 1910; 18:122. 1911. Hupeh.
30. Prunus involucrata Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:206. 1912. Western Hupeh.
31. Prunus hirtipes Hemsley. Jour. Linn. Soc. 23:218. 1887.
32. Prunus schneideriana Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:242. 1912. Chekiang.
33. Prunus duclouxii Koehne. I. c. 242. Yunnan.
34. Prunus ampla Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:243. 1912. Szechuan.
35. Prunus malifolia Koehne. I. c. 207. Western Hupeh. Prunus malifolia rosthomii Koehne. I. c. 243. Szechuan.
Ser. 2. Cyclaminium Koehne.
36. Prunus cyclamina Koehne. P/ani. IFi/i. Pt. 2:207. 1912. Western Hupeh. Pnmus cyclamina biflora Koehne. I. c. 243. Western China.
37. Prunus dielsiana Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:68. 1905.
"P. szechuanica, var. ? " or "P. szechuanica dielsiana Schneider," I. c, not P. szechuanica Batalin.
Hupeh. Pnmus dielsiana laxa Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:208. 1912. Western Hupeh. Prunus dielsiana conferta Koehne. /. c. 244. Western Hupeh.
38. Prunus plurinervis Koehne. /. c. 208. Western Szechuan.
39. Prunus rufoides Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:55. 1905. Szechuan.
40. Prunus hirtifoUa Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:209. 1912. Western Szechuan.
Sect. 2. PSEUDOCERASUS Koehne.
Prunus subgen. Cerasus sect. Yamasakura Koidznmi. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 25:183. 1911. Subsect 7. HYPADE.NIUM Koehne.
41. Prunus glandulifolia Ruprecht & Maximowicz. M^m. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 9:87 (Prim.
Fl. Amur.) 1859. Amur.
Subsect. 8. SARGEXTIELLA Koehne.
42. Prunus pseudocerasus Lindley. Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 6:90. 1826. Cultivated in China. Cerasus pseudocerasus G. Don. Loudon Hort. Brit. 200. 1830.
Prunus sieboldii K.oidzu.mi. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 25: 18.^. 191 1.
Pnmus pseudocerasus sieboldii Ma.ximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29:102.
Prunus paniculata Ker. Bot. Reg. 10: t. 800. 1824, not Prunus paniculata Thunberg.
Cerasus paniculata De Ca.ndolle. Prodr. 2:539. 1825.
Cerasus sieboldtii Carriere. Rev. Hort. 371. 1866.
Prunus sieboldii WitX.ma.ck.. Gartenfi. 51:272. 1902.
Prunus pseudocerasus serrulata sieboldtii Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22: 102. 1908?
Prunus serrulata serrulata sieboldtii 'Kla.kino. I. c. 23:74. 1909.
Prunus pseudocerasus typica sieboldii Koidzumi. /. c. 182.
Prunus pseudocerasus flore rosea plena Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus pseudocerasus naden Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus pseudocerasus watereri Koehne. /. c. 172. 1909.
Cerasus wattererii, cited by Lavallee Icon. Arb. Segrez. 119. 1885, as a synonym under Cerasus
pseudocerasus ? Cerasus watereri Goldring. Garden 33:416, fig. p. 420. 1888?
Prunus serrulata serrulata wattererii Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:75. 1909? (Horticultural) Prunus pseudocerasus virescens Koehne. Prunus donarium Siebold. Rijks-Herbarium, Leyden.
43. Prunus paracerasus Koehne. Fedde Rep. Nov. S p. 7:1:^3. 1909. Japan. (Horticultural)
44. Prunus serrulata Lindley. Trans. Hort. Soc. London 7:1^8. 1830. Prunus cerasus flore simplici Th\inheTg. Fl. Jap. 201. 1784.
Prunus donarium Siebold. Verh. Batav. Genoot. 12: No. I. 68 {Syn. PL Oecon.) 1827. Prunus jamasakura Siebold. /. c. 1827. 2
1 8 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Cerasus serrulata G. Don. Loudon Hort. Brit. 480. 1830.
Primus pttddum Miquel. Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. 2:90, (in part, not Wallich) 1865.
Primus pseudocerasus jamasakiira glabra Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:93. 1809.
Primus pseudocerasus jamasakura pracox Makino. /. c. 98. 1908.
Prunus pseudocerasus jamasakura glabra prcecox Makino. /. c. 113.
Prunus pseudocerasus serrulata glabra Makino. /. c. loi.
Primus pseudocerasus spontanea kortensis Koidzumi. /. c. 23: 183. 1909.
Prunus cerasus flore plena Thunberg. Fl. Jap. 201. 1784.
Prunus serrulata Lindley. cf . supra.
Cerasus serrulata G. Don. London Art. Brit. 2:701, fig. 407. 1833.
Cerasus pseudocerasus LavalMe. Icon. Arb. Segrez. 119, t. 36. 1885, (ubi citatur: Cerasus maeda h.).
Prunus pseudocerasus serrulata glabra fugenzo Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:73. 1908.
Pruttus serrulata serrulata fugenzo rosea Makino. /. c. 23 : 74. 1909.
Prunus jamasakura elegans glabra Koidzumi. /.c. 25:185. 1911.
Prunus jamasakura speciosa Koidzumi. /. c. 186. Japan, Korea.
Prunus serrulata albida (Makino) Koehne.
Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flore simplici albo Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29:102.
Prunus pseudocerasus Stapf. Bot. Mag. 131: t. 8012. 1905.
Prunus pseudocerasus serrulata sieboldii albida Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22: 102. 1908.
Prunus serrulata serrulata albida fi.iakino. I. c. 23:74. 1909.
Prunus serrulata yashino Koehne. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 18:167. 1909.
Prunus pseudocerasus yoshino Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus serrulata lannesiana (Carri^re) Koehne. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 18:167. i909-
Cerasus lannesiana Carriere. Rev. Hort. 198. 1872.
Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flore simplici cameo Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29: 102.
Primus serrulata serrulata lannesiana Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:74. 1909.
Primus jamasakura speciosa nobilis Koidzumi. /. c. 25:187. 1911.
Prunus serrulata kriegeri Koehne. Gartenfl. 52:2 (nomen nudum) 1902.
Cerasus pendula kriegeri F. Spath ex Koehne.
Prunus serrulata grandiflora A. Wagner. Gartenfl. 52:169, t. 1513a. 1903.
Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flore plena viridi Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29:102.
Prunus pseudocerasus serrulata glabra viridiflora Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:102. 1908.
Prunus serrulata serrulata viridiflora Makino. /. c. 23:74. 1909.
Cerasus donarium Siebold. Rijks-Herbarium, Leyden.
Prunus pseudocerasus ukon Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus serrulata ochichima Koehne. Milt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 18:169. 1909.
Prunus serrulata serrulata fugenzo, 2. alborosea Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:74. 1909.
Prunus pseudocerasus ochichima Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus pseudocerasus shirofugen Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus serrulata hisakura Koehne. Gartenfl. 51: 2, t. 1494 b. 1902.
Cerasus caproniana flore rosea plena Van Houtte. Fl. des. Serres 21:141, t. 2238. 1875.
Cerasus serratifolia rosea Carriere. Rev. Hort. 889, t. fig. B. 1877.
Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flare semipleno rosea Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 11:
699- 1883. Prunus pseudocerasus hisakura Koehne. (Horticultural) Prunus pseudocerasus benifugen Koehne. (Horticultural) Prunus pseudocerasus "New Red." Koehne. (Horticultural) Prunus serrulata "W. Kou." Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus jamasakura speciosa nobilis donarium Koidzumi. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 25:187. 191 1. Pnmus serrulata veitchiana Koehne. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. g: 122. 191 1. Cerasus pseudocerasus "James Veitch." Gartenfl. 51: ^gj. 1902. (Horticultural) Prunus serrulata mucronata Koehne. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 18:170. 1909. Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flare pulcherrimo plena Candida Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St.
Petersburg 29: 102. Prunus cerasus flare rosea plena Koehne. (Horticultural) Prunus serrulata flore plena Koehne. (Horticultural)
Prunus serrulata shidare-sakura Koehne. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 18:170. 1909. Prunus pseudocerasus hortensis flare cameo sufuso Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29: 102. Prunus pseudocerasus shidare-sakura Koehne. (Horticultural) 44 X 88 ? Prunus a£finis Makino. Prunus pseudocerasus jamasakura z incisa? Makino. Tokyo Bot.
Mag. 22:99. 1908. Japan.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 9
45. Pninus sargentii Rehder. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 17:159. 1908.
Primus puddum Miquel. Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. 2:90 (in part, not Wallich) 1865.
Primus pseudocerasus sachcdinensis F. Schmidt. Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg ser. 7, 12: No. 2. 124.
Prunus pseudocerasus spontanea Maximowicz. Bid. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29: 102.
Prunus mume crasseglandulosa Miquel. Rijks-Herbarium, Leyden.
Prunus pseudocerasus Sargent. Garden and Forest 10:462, fig. 58 (not Lindley) 1897.
Prunus Sp. Zabel. Beissner, Schelle & Zabel Handb. Laubholz-Ben. 241. 1903.
Prunus pseudocerasus borealis Alakino. Tokyo Bol. Mag. 22:99. 1908.
Prunus serrulata borealis Makino. /. c. 23:75. 1909.
Prunus pseudocerasus spontanea Koidzumi. /. c. 182.
Prunus jamasakura elegans compta 'Koidzurm. /. c. 25:186. 191 1.
Prunus jamasakura borealis K-oidzxirm. I. c. 187. Korea, Saghalin, Japan.
46. Prunus tenuiflora Koehne. Plant Wils. Pt. 2:209. 1912. Western Hupeh.
47. Prunus wildeniana Koehne. /. c. 249. Hupeh.
48. Prunus leveilleana Koehne. I. c. 250. Korea.
49. Prunus sontagia Koehne. /. c. 250. Korea.
50. Prunus mesadenia Koehne. /. c. 250. Nippon.
51. Prunus parvifoUa (Matsumura) Koehne. /. c. 251.
Prunus pseudocerasus paroifolia Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 15:101. 1901.
Prunus pseudocerasus typica parvifoUa Koidzumi. /. c. 23: 182. 1909.
Prunus jamasakura elegans pannfolia Koidzumi. /.c. 25:186. 191 1. Japan.
Prunus parvifoUa aomoriensis Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:251. 1912. Northern Nippon.
52. Prunus concinna Koehne. /. c. 210. Western Hupeh.
53. Prunus twymaniana Koehne. /. c. 211. Western Szechuan.
Subsect. 9. CONRADINIA Koehne.
54. Prunus conradinse Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:211. 1912. Western Hupeh.
55. Prunus helenae Koehne. /. c. 212. Western Hupeh.
56. Prunus saltuum Koehne. /. c. 213. Western Hupeh.
57. Prunus pauciflora Bunge. Mem. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 2:97 (Enum. PL Chin. Bar.) 1835.
Chili.
58. Prunus sprengeri Pampanini. Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 18:230. 191 1. Hupeh.
59. Prunus yedoensis Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 15: 100. 1901. Cultivated in the gardens of Tokyo.
Subsect. 10. SERRULA Koehne.
60. Prunus majestica Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:252. 1912.
Prunus puddum Franchet. PI. Delavay. 197 (not Roxburgh following Brandis) 1889. Prunus cerasoides tibetica Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:54 (in part) 1905. Yunnan.
61. Prunus serrula Franchet. PI. Delavay. 196. 1889. Yunnan.
Prunus serrula tibetica (Batalin) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:213. 1912. Western Szechuan. Subsect. II. PUDDUM Koehne.
62. Prunus campanulata Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29. 103.
Prunus cerasoides Koidzumi. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:181 (in part, not D. Don) 1909. Fokien. Cultivated in Japan.
63. Prunus hosseusii Diels. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 4:289. 1907. Siam.
64. Prunus cerasoides D. Don. Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 239. 1825. Prunus sihatica Roxburgh. Hort. Beng. 92. 1814.
Cerasus phoshia Yia.miton. De CandoUe Prodr. 2:535. 1825. Cerasus puddum Seringe. De CandoUe Prodr. 2:537. 1825. Prunus puddum Roxburgh. Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 194. 1874. Nepal.
65. Prunus rufa Steudel. Nomencl. Bot. 2:404. 1841.
Cerasus rufa WaUich. Cat. No. 721. 1829. Eastern Himalaya.
66. Prunus trichantha Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:254. 1912.
Prunus rufa Hooker. Fl. Brit. Ind. 2:314 (in part) 1878. Eastern Himalaya. Subsect. 12. MICROCALYMMA Koehne.
67. Prunus herincquiana Lavall^e. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:214. 1912. Western Hupeh. Prunus herincquiana biloba (Franchet) Koehne. Western Hupeh.
Prunus biloba Franchet in Herb. Paris. China.
68. Prunus subhirtella Miquel. Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. 2:91. 1865. Prunus subhirtella oblongifolia Miquel. I. c.
Prunus incisa Maximowicz. Bul. Sci. Acad. St. Petersburg 29:99.
Prunus pendula ascendens Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 7:103. 1893?
Prunus herincquiana ascendens Schneider. III. Handb. Laubholzk. 1:608. 1906.
20 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Prunus itosakra subhirtellaKoidzuTm. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:180. 1908. Japan. Prunus subhirtella fukubana Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:118. 1908. Prunus itosakra ascendens amabilis Koidzumi. /. c. 23:181. 1909?
69. Prunus pendula Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29:98. Prunus itosakura S\&hQ\d. Verh. Batav. Genoot. 12: No. 1. 68. 1830. Cerasus pendula florc rosea Siehold. Cat. 5:^1. 1863, Maximowicz. Cerasus pendula rosea Domhrain. Floral Mag. 10. t. 536. 1871. , Prunus subhirtella pendula Tanaka. Useful PI. Jap. 153, fig. 620. 1895. Cerasus itosakura Siebold. Herb., iVIaximowicz. /. c.
Cerasus hcrincquiana Lavallee. Icon. Arb. Segrez. 117. 1885.
Prunus miqueliana Schneider. ///. Handb. Laubholzk. 1:609 (not Maximowicz) 1906.
Prunus hcrincquiana Schneider. /. c. 608.
Cerasus pendula Siebold in herb., Koehne. /. c.
Prunus cerasus pendula flore roseo Koehne. I. c. (Horticultural)
Prunus itosakra pendula KoidzMvai. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:180. 1909. Japan.
70. Prunus taiwaniana Hayata. Jour. Coll. Sci. Tokyo 30:87. 1911. Formosa.
71. Prunus microlepis Koehne. Plant. Wtls. Pt. 2:256. 1912. Hondo. Prunus microlepis temata Koehne. /. c. 256. Hondo.
Subsect. 13. CERASEIDOS (Siebold & Zuccarini) Koehne. Ceraseidos Siebold & Zuccarini. Abh. Akad. Miinch. 3:743 t. 5. 1843. Ser. I. Phyllopodium.
72. Pnmus setulosa Batalin. Act. Hort. Petrop. 12:165. 1892. Eastern Kansu.
73. Prunus phyllopoda Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:257. 1912. Northern Shensi.
74. Pnmus canescens Bois. /. c. 215. Western Hupeh.
75. Prunus veitchii Koehne. /. c. 257. Western Hupeh.
Ser. 2. Droserina.
76. Prunus giraldiana Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:65. 1905. Northern Shensi.
77. Prunus droseracea Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:215. 1912. Western Szechuan.
Ser. 3. OxYODON.
78. Prunus trichostoma Koehne. /. c. 216. Western Szechuan.
79. Pnmus latidentata Koehne. /. c. 217. Western Szechuan.
80. Prunus micromeloides Koehne. I. c. 218. Western Szechuan.
81. Prunus oxyodonta Koehne. I. c. 218. Western Szechuan.
82. Prunus glsrptocarya Koehne. /. c. 219. Western Szechuan.
83. Prunus podadenia Koehne. I. c. 258. Western China.
84. Pnmus lobulata Koehne. /. c. 220. Western Szechuan.
85. Pnmus stipulacea Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 11:689. 1883. Kansu.
86. Prunus pleuroptera Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:221. 1912. Western Szechuan.
87. Pnmus zappeyana Koehne. I. c. 221. Western Hupeh.
Pnmus zappeyana? subsimplex Koehne. /. c. 222. Western Hupeh.
88. Pnmus incisa Thunberg. Fl. Jap. 202. 1784. Cerasus incisahoisAear. Nouveau Duhamel $: 33. 1 812.
Ceraseidos apetala Miquel. Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. 2:93 1865 (in part). Japan.
Ser. 4. EUCERASEIDOS.
89. Prunus caudata Franchet. PI. Delavay. 196. 1889. Yurman.
90. Prunus iwagiensis Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:259. 1912. Hondo.
91. Prunus nipponica Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 15:99. 1901. Primus miqueliana Koidzumi. /. c. 23:184 (not Maximowicz) 1909. Prunus ceraseidos Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29: 103. Prunus apetala typica Schneider. III. Hatulb. Laubholzk. 1:608. 1906. Japan.
92. Prunus autumnalis Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:259. 1912.
Prunus subhirtella autumnalts Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:117. 1908. Hondo.
93. Prunus kurilensis Miyabe. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 24:11. 1910.
Prunus ceraseidos kurilensis Miyabe. Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 4:226 (Fl. Kurile Isl.) 1890. Prunus incisa kurilensis K.oidzumi. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 23:184. 1909.
94. Prunus nikkoensis Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:260. 1912. Japan.
95. Prunus miqueliana Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 11:692 (not Schneider) 1883. Japan.
96. Prunus tschonoskii Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:261. 1912. Prunus ceraseidos Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 29:103.
Prunus apetala iwozana Schneider. III. Handb. Laubholzk. 1:608. 1906. Japan.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 21
97. Pnmus apetala (Siebold & Zuccarini) Franchet & Savatier. Enum. PI. Jap. 2:329. 1879 (not Zabel,
cf. P. maximowiczii, No. 9). Ceraseidos apetala SithoXd & Zvicca.r\ni. Abh. Akad. Miinch. 3:^^^,. t. 5. 1843. Prunus ceraseidos Maximowicz. Bui. Acad. Sci. Si. Petersburg 29:103. Japan. Ser. 5. Amblyodox.
98. Prunus gracilifolia Koehne. Plant. Wils. Ft. 2:223. 191 2. Western Hupeh.
99. Prunus rossiana Koehne. /. c. 223. Western Hupeh.
Div. n. MICROCERASUS (Spach, Roemer) Koehne. Cerasus sect. Microcerasus Spach. Hist. Vi-g. 1:423. 1834. Microcerasus Webb. Phytogr. Canar. 2:19. 1836-40. Sect. I. SPIRAEOPSIS Koehne.
Subsect. I. MYRICOCERASUS Koehne.
100. Prunus pumjla Linnaeus. Mant. PI. 75. 1767. Eastern North America.
loi. Prunus besseyi Bailey. Bui. Cor. Ex. Sta. 70:261. 1894. Eastern North America. Subsect. 2. SPIRAEOCERASUS Koehne.
102. Prunus dictyoneura Diels. Bot. Jahrb. 36, Beibl. 82, 57. 1905. Shensi.
103. Prunus humilis Bunge. Mem. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 2:97 (Enum. PI. Chin. Bar.) 1833. Prunus salicina Lindley. Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 7:239. 1830.
Prunus bungei Walpers. Rep. 2:9 (not Moris) 1893. China.
104. Pnmus glandulosa Thunberg. Fl. Jap. 202. 1784. Amygdalus pumila Linnaeus. Mant. 1:74. 1767. Cerasus glandulosa Loiseleur. Nouv. Duhamel 5:33. 1825. Prunus glandulosa glabra Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:263. 1912.
Prunus japonica glandulosa 'b.la.y.rmovncz. Bid. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 54:1;^. 1879. Japan.
Prunus glandulosa glabra alba Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:263. 191 2.
Prunus japoni^:a Lindley. Bot. Reg. S:t. 1801. 1835.
Prunus glandulosa glabra rosea Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt 2:263. 1912.
Prunus japonica typica flore rosea Maximowicz, in sched.
Prunus japonica flor. simp. Tanaka. Usejid PL Jap. 153, fig. 621. 1895.
Prunus japonica glandulosa Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 14:136. 1900. Japan.
Prunus glandulosa glabra albiplena Koehne. Plant Wils. Pt. 2:264. 1912.
Cerasus japonica multiplex Seringa. De CandoUe Prodr. 2:539 (in part) 1825.
Prunus japonica flore plena Siebold & Zuccarini. Fl. Jap. 1:172 t. 90 f. in. (in part) 1826.
Prunus japonica Oudemans. Neerlands Plantentuin t. 2. 1865.
Prunus japonica flore albo pleno hemidre. III. Hort. $: t.183. 1858.
Prunus japonica Maximowicz. Bui. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 54. 14 (in part) 1879.
Prunus japonica multiplex Makino. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 22:72 (in part) 1908. Japan.
Pnmus glandulosa purdomii Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt 2:264. 1912. Northern China.
Pnmus glandulosa trichostyla Koehne. I. c. 224.
Pnmus glanduJosa trichostyla faberi Koehne. /. c. 224.
Prunus japonica J. Hutchinson. Bot. Mag. 135: t. 8260 (not Thunberg) 1909. Shantung.
Pnmus glandulosa trichostyla paokangensis (Schneider) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:264. 19 12.
Prunus japonica packangensis Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:5;}. 1905. Western Hupeh.
Pnmus glandulosa trichostyla sinensis (Persoon) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:265. 1912.
Amygdalus indica nana Plukenett. Phytogr. i: t. II. f. 4 (1691, new edit. 1769).
Prunus sinensis Persoon. Syn. 2:36. 1807.
Cerasus japonica Seringe. De Candolle Prodr. 2:539 (in part) 1825.
Prunus japonica flore plena Siebold & Zuccarini. Fl. Jap. 1:172 t. 90 f. in. (in part) 1826.
Prunus japonica Maximowicz. Bui. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 54:14 (in part) 1883. Northern Shensi.
Pnmus glandulosa salicifoli (Komarov) Koehne. Plant. WUs. Pt. 2:265. 1912.
Prumcs japonica salicifolia Komasov. Act. Hort. Petro p. 22:^54. 1904. Shing-king.
105. Prunus pogonostyla Ma.ximowicz. Bui. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 54:11. 1879. Prunus formosana Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 15:86. 1901.
Prunus pogonostyla globosa Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:265. 1912. Formosa. Prunus pogonostyla obovata Koehne. /. c. 265. Formosa.
106. Prunus japonica Thunberg. Fl. Jap. 201. 1784.
Prunus japonica japonica ^la.ydmovficz. Bui. Soc. Nat. Mosc. $4: 12. 1879. Prunus japonica typica Matsumura. Tokyo Bot. Mag. 14:135. 1900. Prunus japonica eujaponica Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:266. 1912. Pnmus japonica eujaponica fauriei Koehne. /. c. 266. Japan. Pnmus japonica eujaponica oldhamii Koehne. /. c. 266. Hupeh.
22 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Prunus japonica gracillima Koehne. /. c. 266.
Prunus japonica gracillima thunbergii Koehne. I. c. 266.
Prunus japonica thunbergii Koehne. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 8:23. 1910. Cultivated in the Spath
Arboretum near Berlin, received from St. Petersburg. Prunus japonica gracillima engleri Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:266. 1912. Prunus japonica engleri Koehne. /. c. 266. Manchuria.
Pnmus japonica gracillima minor Koehne. I. c. 267. Cultivated in the Spath Arboretum, Berlin. Pnmus japonica gracillima sphaerica (Carri^re) Koehne. /. c. 267. Prunus japonica sphaerica Carriere. Rev. Hort. 468, fig. 163. 1890. Prunus japonica kerii (Steudel) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:267. 191 2. Prunus japonica Ker-Gawler. Bot. Reg. i: t. 27. 1815. Amygdalus pumila Sims. Bot. Mag. 47: t. 2176. 1820.
Prunus kerii .Steudel. Nomencl. Bot. ed. 2, 403. 1841, which cites " Cerasus "japonica Ker-Gawler. Prunus japonica typicaflore plena Zabel. Beissner, Schelle & Zabel Handb. Laubholz-Ben. 238. 1903.
Chekiang. Cultivated in England. ? Prunus praecoz Carriere. Rev. Hort. 488, fig. 142, 143. 1892. Originated from sowings of Prunus
japonica sphaerica and supposed to be Prunus japonica X domestica.
107. Prunus nakaii L^veille. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 7:198. 1909. Korea.
108. Prunus carcharias Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:267. 1912. Szechuan. Sect. 2. AMYGDALOCERASUS Koehne.
Cerasus sect. Microcerasus Spach.
Microcerasus Webb. Phytogr. Canar. 2:19 (1836-50); Schneider ///. Handb. Laubholzk. 1:601. 1906. Prunus subgen. Microcerasus Focke. Engler & Prantl Natiirl. Pflanzenfam. 3:3, 54. 1888. Prunus sect. Trichocerasus et subgen. Microcerasus Koehne. Deutsche Dendr. 302, 306. 1893.
109. Prunus tomentosa Thunberg. Fl. Jap. 203,. 1784. — Siebold & Zuccarini Fl. Jap. i:$i, t. 22. 1826.
Japan, western and northern China. Prunus tomentosa spaethiana Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:269. 1912. Cultivated in European
gardens. Pninus tomentosa graebneriana Koehne. /. c. 269. Cultivated near the Botanic Garden, Berlin-
Dahlem. Prunus tomentosa insularis Koehne. /. c. 269. Japan. Cultivated in Japan. Prunus tomentosa souliei Koehne. /. c. 269. Szechuan. Prunus tomentosa kashkarovii Koehne. /. c. 269. Tibet. Prunus tomentosa endotricha Koehne. /. c. 225. Western Hupeh. Pnmus tomentosa brevifiora Koehne. /. c. 270. Northern Shensi. Prunus tomentosa trichocarpa (Bunge) Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:270. 191 2. Prunus trichocarpa Bunge. Mhn. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg 2:96 {Enum. PI. Chin. Bor.) 1833.
Northern China. Prunus tomentosa tsuluensis Koehne. Plant. Wils. Pt. 2:270. 1912. Northern Shensi. Prunus tomentosa heteromera Koehne. /. c. 270. Szechuan.
110. Prunus batalinii (Schneider) Koehne. /. c. 270.
Prunus tomentosa, (?) Batalinii Schneider. Fedde Rep. Nov. Sp. 1:52. 1905. Szechuan.
111. Prunus cinerascens Franchet. Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris, ser. 2, 8:216 {PI. David. II. 34) 1885.
Western Szechuan.
112. Prunus jacquemontii (Edgeworth) Hooke. Fl. Brit. Ind. 2:314. 1878. Afghanistan, Northwestern
Himalaya, Tibet.
113. Prunus incana (Pallas) Steven. Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 3:263. 1812. Armenia, Georgia, Himalaya? Cf. Cerasus hippophaeoides Bommuller. Oester. Bot. Zeit. ^g:i^. 1899. Cappadocia.
114. Prunus griffithii (Boissier) Schneider. ///. Handb. Laubholzk. 1:606. 1906. Afghanistan.
115. Prunus prostrata Labillardiere. Icon. PI. Syr. 1:15, t. 6. 1791. Southern Europe, Crete, Algier,
Western Asia to Persia and Syria. Cf. Pnmus bifrons Fritsch. Sitz. Akad. Wien 101: pt. i. 636, t. 3, fig. i. 1892. Himalaya?
116. Prunus brachypetala (Boissier) Walpers. Ann. 1:272. 1848-49. Southern Persia.
117. Pnmus microcarpa C. A. Meyer. Verz. Pfl. Caucas. Casp. 166. 1831. Caucasia, Northern Persia. Cf. Cerasus tortuosa Boissier & Haussknecht. Boissier Fl. Or. 2:647. 1872. Antilibanon, Cappa- docia, Kurdistan.
118. Prunus verrucosa Franchet. Ann. Sci. Nat. s6r. 6, 16:280. 1883. Turkestan.
Cf. Prunus calycosus Aitchison & Hemsley. Trans. Linn. Soc. 3:61, t. 8. 1888. Afghanistan.
119. Prunus diffusa (Boissier & Haussknecht) Schneider. III. Handb. Laubholzk. 1 :6o6. 1906. South-
western Persia.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 23
The geographical distribution of these cherries is most interesting.^ From North America come but five species of cherries but two of which, Priums besseyi and Prunns pumila, furnish food and these two as yet are but sparingly grown; all five, however, are more or less used as stocks.
Greene^ has described, in addition to the five accepted ones, eleven new species of true cherries from the far west of the type of Primus emarginata, some of which at least have furnished food to the Indians, miners and trappers and may have horticultural possibilities for the desert regions in which they are found either for fruit or as stocks.
From the western portion of the Old World, including all of Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan and Afghanistan come 14 species. From this region, though the number of species as compared with East Asia is small, we have all of the cultivated esculent cherries, if possibly Primus tonientosa be excepted. Though nearly all of the species of this large territory are found — possibly all originated there — in the southeastern part of Europe and the adjoining southwestern part of Asia, yet they seem, with one or two exceptions, to be quite distinct from the species of the eastern half of the Old World — the Himalaya Mountains separating the two regions. It is probable that when west central Asia has been as well explored botanically as the east central part of the con- tinent, many new species will be added to Prunus and its sub-genus Cerasus.
It is in the eastern half of the Old World that the cherry flora is richest. More than 100 of the 119 species of Cerasus recognized by Koehne are found in the Himalaya Mountains and the region to the east including Japan and the Kuril Islands. Yet out of all of this wealth of raw material only Primus tomentosa has been truly domesticated as an esculent though possibly a score of these species are well-known ornamentals. Of the 100 eastern Asiatic species about 75 belong to China — the remainder to
' Koehne has presented the results of a careful study of the distribution of cherries in Mitt. Deulsch. Dendr. Ges. 168-183. 1912.
^Greene {Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 18:55-60. 1905), preferring Cerasus to Prunus as a generic name for racemose cherries, gives the following new species: Cerasus californica {Fl. Francis. 50. 1891) from the hills of middle western California; Cerasus crenulata from the MongoUan Mountains, New Mexico; Cerasus arida inhabiting the borders of the desert at the eastern base of the San Bernardino Mountain, California; Cerasus prunifolia found in the mountains of Fresno County, California; Cerasus rhamnoides collected at Mud Springs, Amador County, California; Cerasus kelloggiana from the middle Sierra Nevada Mountains in California; Cerasus padifolia collected in the foothills near Carson City, Nevada; Cerasus obliqua described from a single specimen from Oroville, California; Cerasus parviflora known only from Mt. Shasta, California; Cerasus obtusa from the arid interior of southeastern Oregon; and Cerasus trichopetala found at Columbia Falls, Montana. The type specimens of these eleven species are in the National Herbarium at Washington.
24
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Formosa, Siam and Japan with its islands. Happily these Chinese cher- ries are being introduced, but a few at a time, it is true, to Europe and America and it can hardly be otherwise than that they will enrich horti- culture as they are domesticated, hybridized or used as a consort upon which to grow the cherries now known to cultivation. In particular, it may be expected that cherries for the cold north and the bleak plains of our continent will be evolved from the Asiatic species better suited to these regions than the cultivated cherries we now grow.
The number and diversity of the species of cherries which this brief review of Cerasus shows to exist suggest that our cultivated cherry flora is but begun. There can be no question but that others of these species than the few that have been domesticated will yield to improvement under cultivation and furnish refreshing fruits. It is just as certain that new types, as valuable perhaps as the hybrid Diikes we now have, can be produced through hybridization. In North America, we have no satis- factory stock for cultivated Sweet and Sour Cherries. Both of the stocks now commonly used, the Mazzard and the Mahaleb, as we shall see, have weaknesses that unfit them for general use. Surely out of the great num- ber of forms we have just listed a better stock than either of the two named can be found. No doubt, too, many of these new species, even though they do not furnish food, will prove valuable timber or ornamental trees.
We are ready now for a more detailed discussion of the cultivated species of cherries.
PRUNUS CERASUS Linnaeus.
I. Linnaeus Spec. PI. 474. 1753.
P. austera. 2, Ehrhart Beitr. 5: 160. 1790.
P. acida. 3. Ehrhart I. c. 1790.
P. aestiva. 4. Salisbury Prodr. 356. 1796.
P. plena. 5. Poiret, in Lamarck Enc. ilHh. Bot. 5:671. 1804.
P. rosea. 6. Poiret, in Lamarck /. c. 1804.
P. Juliana. 7. Reichenbach Fl. Germ. Exc. 643. 1832, not Poiret in Lamarck, 1805.
P. hortensis. 8. Persoon Sym. PI. 2:34. 1807.
P. Marasca. 9. Reichenbach Fl. Germ. Exc. 644. 1832.
P. oxycarpa. 10. Bechstein Forst. Bot. 5:424. 1843.
P. vulgaris. 11. Schur Entim. PI. Transsih. 954. 1866.
Cerasus vulgaris . 12. Miller Gard. Diet. ed. 8: No. i. 1768.
C. hortenses. 13. Miller /. c. No. 3. 1768.
C. acida. 14. Borkhausen, in Roemer Arch. Bot. i: 11, 38. 1796.
C. austera. 15. Borkhausen, in Roemer /. c. 1796.
C. Caproniana. 16. De Candolle Fl. Fran. ed. 3, 4:842. 1805.
C. nicotianaefoUa. 17. Hort. ex De Candolle Prodr. 2:536. 1825.
-^^'"^^'i^^fe
--v^;
PRVXVS CERASZ^S (AMARELLE GROUP)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 2$
C. bigarella. i8. Dumortier Fl. Belg. gi. 1827.
C. effusa. 19. Host Fl. Aiislr. 2:6. 1831.
C. Marasca. 20. Host /. c. 1831.
C. Bungei. 21. Walpers Rep. 2:9. 1843.
C. Heaumiana. 22. Roemer Syn. Rosifl. 69. 1847.
C. tridentina. 23. Roemer /. c. 76. 1847.
C. Khexii. 24. Hort. Gall, ex Van Houtte Fl. Serres, ser. 2, 7: 159. 1868.
C. cucullata. 25. Hort. ex Koch Dendrol. 1:6. 1869.
Tree low, reaching a height of twenty to thirty feet, diffuse, open-headed, round- topped or spreading, often without a central leader; trunk at maturity a foot in diameter; bark reddish-brown overlaid with ashy-gray, smooth or sometimes roughened; branches spreading, slender and more or less drooping; branclilets slender and willowy, glabrous, reddish-brown becoming darker and overspread with ashy-gray; lenticels small, numer- ous, conspicuous, raised.
Leaves resinous at opening, more or less erect, very numerous, three to four inches long and from one-half to two inches wide, obovate to oval, folded upward, thick and firm in texture; upper surface dark green, smooth, the lower surface paler green, with more or less pubescence; apex taper-pointed or acute, base abrupt or acute; margins finely serrate, often doubly so, teeth tipped with small, dark glands; petioles from a half-inch to two inches long, slender, grooved, with a few hairs on the upper surface, tinged with red; glands from one to four, usually small, variously colored, globose or reniform, usually at the base of the blade; stipules small, lanceolate, narrow, finely serrate, early caducous.
Winter-buds small, short, obtuse or pointed, plump and free, arranged singly or in clusters; leaf -scars usually prominent; flowers appearing with or after the leaves, showy, an inch across, white; borne in dense or scattered, very scaly clusters and in twos, threes and fours on one-year-old wood ; pedicels from a half to an inch and a half in length, slender, green and glabrous; calj^c-tube obconic, glabrous, green or tinged with red; cal3^x-lobes broadly obtuse or acute, glabrous on both surfaces, reflexed, margin serrate, faintly red; petals white, roundish or oval to obovate, entire or crenate, sessile or nearly so; stamens about thirty, filaments one-fourth of an inch in length; anthers yellow; pistils about as long as the stamens, glabrous.
Fruit roundish-oblate or cordate, sides slightly compressed, about three-fourths of an inch in diameter; suture lacking or indistinct; cavity well marked, usually abrupt; apex usually depressed; color from light to dark red; dots numerous, small, russet, more or less conspicuous; stem slender, from a half-inch to two inches in length, glabrous, with- out bloom; skin usually separating readily from the pulp; flesh dark red, with dark colored juice or pale yeUow with colorless juice, tender, melting, sprightly, more or less acidulous, sometimes astringent; stone free or more or less clinging, roundish, pointed or blunt, smooth, less than a half inch in diameter; ventral suture usually ridged, sometimes smooth.
The ntiinerous synonyms of Prunus cerasus indicate the state of con- fusion which prevails in the scientific nomenclature of the Sour Cherry. Yet the names given are scarcely a tithe of those that have been discarded or superseded for a whole or a part of this species by botanists. Happily,
26 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
there is no language in which there is a possibility of confusing the Sour Cherry with the other two or three species of cultivated cherries if the common names be used. That men, learned or unlearned, speaking in their mother tongues distinguish species of cherries so readUy by their common names, is ample excuse for not attempting to give in a pomological work all of the Latin names of the Sour Cherry that have been used by the many men who have at one time or another attempted to classify the plants in Prunus. Those here published are from boanists who have contributed most to the knowledge of the species.
Prunus cerasus is the Sour Cherry, or Pie Cherry, of many languages — grown and esteemed in temperate climates the world over and probably the most widely distributed of all tree fruits. The species is found truly wild, as we have set forth in detail in the following chapter, in south- western Asia and southeastern Europe. It is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying from seed distributed by birds or human agencies or growing from suckers which spring so freely from the roots as to make the species unfit for a stock in orchard work. The number of cultivated varieties of Prunus cerasus listed in The Cherries of New York is 270. Sour Cherries cultivated for their fruits constitute two distinct groups, each of which is again divided into many varieties. The two groups vary more or less in both tree and fruit but have a constant difference only in a single, very easily distinguished character — the juice in the fruits of one is red, in the other it is colorless.
The cherries with colorless juice are the Amarelles, from the Latin for bitter, a term probably first used by the Germans but now in general use wherever these cherries are grown, though the English often designate them as Kentish cherries and the French as Cerisier Commun. These Amarelles are pale red fruits, more or less flattened at the ends. Despite the derivation of the name Amarelle, they have less bitterness than the other group of varieties of the Sour Cherry. They are also less acid than the darker colored cherries and are therefore more suitable for eating out of hand while the dark colored cherries are almost exclusively culinary fruits. The common representatives of this group are Early Richmond, Montmorency and the various cherries to which the word Amarelle is affixed, as the King Amarelle and the Spate Amarelle.
The second group, varieties with reddish juice and usually with very dark fruits which are more spherical or cordate in shape than the Amarelles, comprises the Morellos of several languages or the Griottes of
J-JILSLS CEIt.lSVS (MORELLO GROUP)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 27
the French. The first of these terms has reference to the color, the word Morello coming from the ItaHan meaning blackish while Griotte, from the French, probably is derived through agriotte from aigre, meaning sharp, in reference to the acidity of these cherries. Weichsel is the German group name for these cherries, rather less commonly used than the other two terms. The trees of the Morello-like varieties are usually smaller, bushier and more compact than those of the Amarelles. The branches, as a rule, are more horizontal, often drooping, are less regularly arranged and are more slender. The leaves, in typical varieties, are smaller, thinner, a darker green and are pendant while those of the Amarelles are either inclined to be upright or horizontal; the leaves are also toothed less deeply and more regularly. These differences in the leaves are well shown in the color-plates of the varieties of the two groups. There are differ- ences, also, in the inflorescence and the floral organs in the extreme types but these disappear in the varieties that connect the two forms. The typical varieties of this group are English Morello, Ostheim, Olivet, Brusseler Braune, Vladimir and Riga.
Attempts to give precise distinctions between the fruits and trees of the two groups fail because the varieties constituting them hybridize freely making it impossible, with the more or less blended characters, to classify acctu-ately. The group name indicates but little more than whether the cherries have a colored or a colorless juice — a distinction well worth while for the fruit-grower.
Ehrhart called Soior Cherries with colorless juice Priinus acida and those with dark colored juice Primus austera. To some extent botanists have followed Ehrhart's designations. Linnaeus thought the two groups sufficiently distinct to be botanical varieties of the species and denomi- nated the cherry with colorless juice Primus cerasus caproniana and the one with colored juice Primus cerasus austera.
A third division of the species is the Marasca cherry from which is made maraschino, a distilled liqueur much used in Europe as a drink and in Europe and America in the manufacture of maraschino cherries. The Marasca cherry is a native of the province of Dalmatia, Austria, where the trees grow wild and are now sparingly cultivated. In 1831 Host gave this form the name Cerasus marasca and a year later Reichenbach described it as Primus marasca. Botanists now very generally include it in the species under discussion and Schneider' makes it a botanical variety,
^ Schneider, C. K. Handb. Laubh. 1:615. 1906.
28 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Prunus cerasus marasca, a disposition which we beHeve to be the best. The Marasca cherries differ from the other cultivated forms chiefly in the greater vigor of the trees, relatively finer serrations of the leaves, longer stipules and a more compact inflorescence. The fruits are much smaller than in the common Sour Cherries, are deep red or almost black in color and have intensely red flesh and juice. The cherries are very acid with a bitter taste that gives flavor to the maraschino made from them.
Besides these divisions of the species cultivated for their fruits botanists describe several botanical forms which either have no horti- cvdtural value or are cultivated exclusively as ornamentals. It is not necessary to discuss these in a pomological work. Of these botanical derivatives of Prunus cerasus, Schneider enumerates nine and three hybrids between this and other species.'
PRUNUS AVIUM Linnaeus. I. Linnaeus Fl. Suec. ed. 2:165. 1755. P. nigricans. 2. Ehrhart Beitr. 7:126. 1792. P. varia. 3. Ehrhart /. c. 127. 1792. P. sylvestris. 4. Persoon Syn. PI. 2:35. 1807. P. dulcis. 5. Miller ex Reichenbach Fl. Germ. Exc. 644. 1832. Cerasus nigra. 6. Miller Gard. Diet. ed. 8:No. 2. 1768. C. Avium. 7. Moench Meth. 672. 1794. C. varia. 8. Borkhausen, in Roemer .4rc/!. i., 2:38. 1796. C. Juliana. 9. De CandoUe Fl. Fran. 4:483. 1805. C. duracina. 10. De Candolle /. c. 1805. C. rubiamda. 11. Bechstein Forstb. 160, 335. 1810.
C. intermedia. 12. Host Fl. Austr. 2:7. 1831, not Loisel. in Duham. 1812. C. decumana. 13. Delaunay ex Seringe, in De Candolle Pro(ir. 2:536. 1825. C. macrophylla. 14. S-weet Hort. Brit. ed. 1:485. 1827. C. dulcis. 15. Borkhausen ex Steudel Norn. Bot. ed. sec., 1:331. 1840. C. pallida. 16. Roemer Syn. Rosifl. 69. 1847. C. heterophylla. 17. Hott. e.^VLoch. Dendrol. 1: 106. 1869. C. asplenifolia. 18. Hort. ex Koch /. c. 1869. C. salicifolia. 19. Hort. ex Koch /. c. 1869, not Ser. in De Candolle. 1825.
Tree reaching a height of thirty to forty feet, vigorous, upright-spreading, open- topped, semi-hardy, usually with a central leader; trunk a foot or more in diameter roughened; branches rather stocky, smooth, dull ash-gray, with few small lenticels; branch- lets thick, long, with long intemodes, grayish-brown, smooth, with small, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaves resinous at opening, more or less drooping, numerous, four to sue inches long, two to three inches wide, strongly conduplicate, oblong-ovate, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose or sometimes smooth; lower surface duU green, more or less pubescent; apex acute, base more or less abrupt; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, glandular; petiole
* Schneider, C. K. Handb. Laubh. 1:1906; 2:1912.
PRiyvs irnm (YELLOW SPANISH)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 29
one and three-fourths inches long, slender, dull red, with from one to three small, globose, reddish glands on the stalk; stipules small, lanceolate, finely serrate, early caducous.
Buds rather small, of medium length, pointed, appressed or free, arranged singly or in small, scaly clusters at the tips of branchlets or on short spurs; leaf -scars prominent; blooming with or after the leaves; flowers white, one and one-quarter inches across; in clusters of two or three; pedicels one inch long, slender, glabrous; calyx-tube green or with a faint red tinge, brownish-yellow within, campanulate; calyx-lobes faintly tinged with red, long, acute, margin serrate, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals oval, entire or crenate, tapering to a short, blunt claw; stamens nearly one-half inch long, thirty-five or thirty-six; anthers yellow; pistU glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fniit ripening in early July; about an inch in diameter, cordate; cavity deep, wide, abrupt; suture a line; apex roundish or pointed; color ranging from yellow through red to purplish-black; dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous; stem tinged with red, one and one-half inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin toughish, adherent to the pulp; flesh yellow, red, or dark purple with colorless or colored juice, tender to firm, sweet; stone semi-clinging, three-eighths of an inch long, not as wide as long, elliptical, flattened, blunt, with smooth surfaces.
Through its ctiltivated varieties Prunus avium is everywhere known in temperate cHmates as the Sweet Cherry. In the wild state it is variously called Mazzard, Bird, Wild, Crab and the Gean cherry. It is not as hardy a species as Prunus cerasus and is, therefore, less generally grown but still is a favorite orchard, dooryard and roadside plant in all mid-temperate regions. It refuses to grow, however, in the warmest and coldest parts of the temperate zones. Wherever the species thrives as an orchard plant it is to be found growing spontaneously along fences and roadsides and in open woods from seeds distributed by birds. The fruits of these wild Sweet Cherries are usually small and the flesh thin and dry, often unpalatable ; but, on the other hand, trees are sometimes found as escapes from cultivation which rival in their products the orchard-grown cherries. It is from reverted seedlings that the description of the species herewith given has been made. The number of ctiltivated varieties of Prunus avium listed in The Cherries of New York is 549.
The habitat of the species and its history as a cultivated plant are given in the following chapter. A further point of horticultural interest as regards its habitat is that wherever found truly wild, as in its original home in southern and central Europe and Asia Minor, it is to be found in moderately dry, calcareous soils and seldom in the shade, preferring always warm, sunny sites, as gravelly or stony hillsides. These predi- lections cling to the species in its cultivated varieties. Prunus avium differs from Prunus cerasus in an important horticultural character as
30 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
the two species grow spontaneously — the former suckers from the root Httle or not at all, making it a suitable plant for a stock in orchard work, while the latter suckers so much as to make it unfit for use as a stock.
Prunus avium is variously divided by botanists and pomologists. Whatever distinct forms of the species may exist in the wild state, they are now interminably confused by hybridization under cultivation. It is impossible to divide the species into botanical varieties from the characters of the horticultural varieties, as many botanists have attempted to do. The species can be roughly divided into two pomological groups, the distinguishing character being the texture of the flesh.
Sweet Cherries with soft, tender flesh form one group known by pomologists under the French group name Guigne or the English Gean. These are also the Heart cherries of common parlance. These soft- fruited cherries may again be divided into dark colored varieties with reddish juice and light colored sorts with colorless juice. Typical light colored Geans are Coe, Ida, Elton and Waterloo; dark colored ones are Black Tartarian, Early Purple and Eagle. It is to this group of cherries that Linnaeus gave the varietal name Juliana and De CandoUe the specific name Cerasus Juliana.
The second group is distinguished by the firm, breaking flesh of the fruits — the Bigarreaus of several languages, the name originally having reference to the diverse colors of the fruits. This group is further divisi- ble in accordance with color of fruit and juice into black Bigarreaus and light Bigarreaus. Chief of the black cherries falling into this division are Windsor, Schmidt and Mezel; of the light ones, which are much more numerous. Yellow Spanish and Napoleon are representative sorts. Lin- naeus called these hard-fleshed cherries Prunus avium duracina; De CandoUe called them Cerasus duracina; K. Koch, Prunus avium decumana; and Roemer, Cerasus bigarella.
Besides these two orchard forms of Prunus avium several other horti- cultural forms, quite as distinct or even more so, are grown as ornamentals, some of which are listed as distinct species or as botanical varieties of Prunus avium. To add to the confusion, a number of Latinized garden names are more or less commonly applied to these ornamental Sweet Cherries. Schneider,^ in revising the genus Prunus, names four botanical forms of Prunus avium and two natural hybrids with other species.
' Schneider, C. K. Handb. Laubh. 1:1906; 2:1912.
rnVM S irilM (DOUBLE FLOWERING)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 3I
PRUNUS AVIUM X PRUNUS CERASUS
The Duke cherries, long placed by most pomologists and botanists in a botanical variety of Primus avium, are unquestionably hybrids between the Sweet Cherry and the Sour Cherry. A study of the characters of the varieties of the Diake cherries shows all gradations between Primus cerasus and Primus avium, though, in the main, they resemble the latter more than the former, differing from the Sweet Cherries most noticeably in having an acid flesh. Sterility is a common attribute of hybridism. In this respect the Dukes behave like most hybrids. In several Diike cherries all of the seeds collected at this Station are sterile; in others, most of them are sterile and in none are the seeds as fertile as in varieties known to be pure bred as to species. So, too, shrunken pollen grains indicate hybridity. A study of the pollen of the Duke cherries shows many grains, the greater proportion, to be abnormal, a condition not found in the pollen of varieties true to species. May Duke, Reine Hortense and Late Duke are the leading hybrid varieties.
There are dark colored Duke cherries with reddish juice and light colored sorts with uncolored juice, just as in the two parent species. May Duke is a typical variety with colored juice while Reine Hortense is probably the best-known cherry among these hybrids with uncolored juice. About 65 of the cherries listed in The Cherries of New York are "Dukes," or hybrids between the Sweet and the Sotir Cherry.
The name Duke comes from the variety May Duke which is a cor- ruption of Medoc, a district in the department of Geronde, France, from whence this variety came. The cherries of this group are known as Dukes only in England; in France the name Royale is similarily used.
These hybrid cherries have been placed in a distinct botanical group by several botanists. They constitute the Cerasus regalis Poiteau and Ttirpin {Traite des Arb. Fruit. 123); the Cerasus bigarella regalis Roemer {Syn. Monogr. 3:69); and the Prunus avium regalis Bailey (Cyc. Am. Hort. 1453. 1901).
PRUNUS MAHALEB Linnaeus.
I. Linnaeus Sp. PL 474. 1753. 2. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 3:1451. 1901. 3. Schneider Handb. Laubh. 1:617. 1906.
Cerasus mahaleb. 4. Miller Card. Diet. ed. 8: No. 4. 1759. Padus mahaleb. 5. Borkhausen Han</6. Fori/ft. 2:1434. 1803.
Tree small, slender, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped; braijches roughened, ash-gray over reddish-brown; branchlets numerous, slender and firm-wooded, with short intemodes, dull gray, glabrous, with very numerous large, raised lenticels.
32 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Leaves numerous, an inch in length, one and one-fourth inches wide, ovate to obovate, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, glossy, smooth; lower surface light green, slightly pubescent along the midrid; apex and base abrupt; margin finely crenate, with reddish-brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, slender, greenish, with none or with from one to three small, globose, greenish glands variable in position.
Buds small, short, obtuse, appressed or free, arranged singly as lateral buds and in clusters on small, slender spurs; flowers appearing late, after the leaves, small, averag- ing one-half inch across, white, fragrant; borne in clusters of six to eight scattered on a main stem an inch in length, with the terminal pedicels one-quarter inch long and basal pedicels one-half inch long; pedicels slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, cam- panulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, entire, glabrous, reflexed; petals white, small, separated, ovate, tapering to short, narrow claws; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, about equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures about the middle of July; very small, one-fourth inch long, one-third inch wide, roundish-ovate; cavity shallow and abrupt; suture shallow or a mere line; apex roundish to slightly pointed, with stigma usually adherent; color black; stem slender, length of corymb about one and one-half inches; length of fruit-stem about one-quarter inch; skin thick, tough; flesh reddish-black, with scant reddish-black juice, tender and soft, very astringent, sour, not edible; stone free or nearly so, very small, averaging nine thirty-seconds inch long and seven thirty-seconds inch wide, ovate, slightly flattened, with pointed apex; ventral suture prominent.
Primus mahaleb is now a wild inhabitant of all southern Europe as far north as central France, southern Germany, Austria-Hungary and eastward through Asia Minor and Caucasia to and within the borders of Turkestan. Wherever it grows spontaneously in the Old World it is said to prefer rocky, gravelly, sunny slopes and the climate in which the grape thrives best. Wild or cultivated, the Mahaleb is a shallow-rooted plant, a fact that must be taken into consideration in its use as a stock. Prunus mahaleb is a common escape from cultivation in eastern North America especially about the nursery centers of central New York.
The Mahaleb, or St. Lucie cherry, is of no importance to fruit- growers for its fruit but as a consort with nearly all of the Sweet and Sour Cherries now being propagated in North America it becomes of prime importance and so receives botanical consideration here. According to Schneider, in the reference cited, there are several spontaneous forms of Prunus mahaleb and also several horticulttiral varieties grown as orna- mentals. None of these, wild or cultivated, are of interest to fruit- growers, unless, perchance some one of them shotild prove to be a better stock upon which to work orchard cherries. Mahaleb stocks are usually grown as seedlings but may also be propagated from root cuttings.
pnrws trivM x PRr.vr.s ceu tsrs (reine hortfnsE)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 33
The wood of the Mahaleb tree is of value in cabinet making, possess- ing among other good qualities a pleasant and lasting odor. The leaves, too, are odoriferous and are more or less used in France in the manu- facture of perfumes and in cookery to give savor to sauces.
PRUNUS TOMENTOSA Thunberg.
I. Thunberg Fl. Jap. 203. 1784. 2. Jack Garden 6" Forest 5:580, fig. 99. 1892. 3. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hori. 3:1451. 1901. 4. Schneider Handb. Laubh. 1:601. 1906. 5. Koehne Plantae Wilsonianae Pt. 2:268. 1912.
Cerasus tomcnlosa. 6. Wallich Cat. No. 715. 1829.
A dwarfish, bush-like plant attaining a height of ten or twelve feet, vigorous, dense- topped, hardy; trunk and branches stocky; branches smooth, grayish-brown; branchlets many, of medium thickness and length, thickly overspread with short pubescence, with short intemodes, roughish, with a few large, raised lenticels near the base.
Leaves numerous, two and one-eighth inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward or flattened, broad-oval to obovate, velvety; upper surface dull, dark green, rugose; lower surface thickly pubescent, with a prominent midrib and veins; apex abruptly pointed; margin serrate; petiole three-sixteenths inch in length, reddish, pubescent, of medium thickness, with from twelve to fourteen small, globose, yeUow glands, usually at the base of the blade.
Buds very small, short, pointed, free, arranged as lateral buds and in clusters on small, short spurs; leaf-scars not prominent; season of bloom early; flowers appear with the leaves, white, thirteenth-sixteenths inch across; borne singly or in pairs; pedicels short, thick, glabrous; calyx-tube reddish, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, serrate, slightly pubescent, erect; petals white, roundish-ovate, entire, with short claws; anthers tinged with red; pistil pubescent at the base, longer than the stamens, often defective.
Fruit matures in mid-sea.son; a half -inch in diameter, roundish, slightly compressed; cavity deep, narrow, abrupt; suture shallow; apex depressed, with adherent stigma; color currant-red; dots niunerous, small, grayish, obscure; stem thickish, one-eighth to one- quarter of an inch in length, pubescent; skin thick, tender, adheres slightly to the pulp, covered with light pubescence; flesh light red, with light red juice, stringy, melting, sprightly, sour; good in quality; stone clinging, one-quarter of an inch long, one-eighth inch wide, oval, slightly pointed, with smooth surfaces.
The habitat of Primus tomentosa is probably Central Asia though it is now to be found growing spontaneously in East Tibet and the Chinese provinces of Setschuan, Hupe, Kansu and perhaps Tochlii.
This shrub-like cherry is very generally cultivated in central, eastern and northern China and in Japan for its fruit and as an ornamental. It has been introduced into cultivation in many widely separated places in 3
34
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
North America and appears to be promising for cold regions, both bud and wood withstanding perfectly the most rigorous climates of the United States. As it grows in America it is a bush and never a true tree. It is a twiggy, close-jointed plant, usually with many stems springing from the ground and these bearing branches quite to the base. Frequently these low-growing branches bend to the ground and take root forming new plants. The bushes are thickly clothed with leaves densely tomentose on the underside, in this respect and in shape, as well, very unlike the foliage of common cultivated cherries. The flowers appear in great abun- dance with the leaves, making a handsome ornamental ; they are white, becoming rose-colored as they fall away. The fruit ripens in mid-season for cherries, setting profusely from the many blossoms. The cherries are a half-inch in diameter, bright currant-red, covered with inconspicuous hairs and contain a stone of medium size. They are pleasantly acid, very juicy and withal a decided addition to cultivated cherries. Primus tomentosa seems a most promising plant for domestication and of particular merit for small gardens and cold regions.
Koehne, in his list of cherries, names ten botanical varieties of Prunits tovientosa. From this the species seems to be most variable and under cultivation would probably break up into many forms some of which might prove superior to the type species. Koehne's botanical varieties are given under the species on page 22.
PRUNUS PUMILA Linnaeus.
I. Linnaeus Mant. PL 75. 1768. 2. Bailey Cor. Bui. Ex. Sta. 38:96. 1892. Bailey /. c. 70:260. 1894. 3. BaUey Cyc. Am. Hort. 3:1450. 1901.
P. Susquehanae. 4. Willdenow Enum. PI. 519. 1809.
P. depressa. 5. Pursh Fl. Am. 1:332. 1814.
P. incana. 6. Schweinitz Long's Expedition by Keating 2:387. 1824.
Cerasus glauca. 7. Moench Meth. 672. 1794.
C. pumila. 8. Michaux Fl. Bor. Am. 2:286. 1803.
C. depressa. 9. Seringe, in D3 Candolle Prod. 2:538. 1825.
Plant a small shrub, five to eight feet in height, willow-like habit, weak, upright when young but becoming decumbent, slow-growing, hardy; trunk slender, smooth except for the raised lenticels; branches slender, smooth, twiggy, very dark, dull reddish-black with a tinge of gray; lenticels niamerous, small, conspicuous; branchlets very slender, short, twiggy, with short intemodes, dull grayish-brown, glabrous, with conspicuous, very small, raised lenticels.
Leaves hanging late in the season, small, averaging one and three-fourths inches long, one inch wide, flat, abruptly pointed, narrowly oblanceolate to obovate, thin; upper surface dark, dull green, smooth; lower surface light green, thinly pubescent on the
PRVNVS TOMEXTOSA
I THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 35
midrib and veins ; midrib small, straight ; veins very minute ; margin serrate, teeth tipped with very small glands; petiole short, one-fourth inch in length, glandless.
Flowers small, in two- to five-flowered umbels, white, appearing with the leaves; pedi- cels slender, a half-inch in length. Fruit nearly roimd, pendulous, variable in color but usually purple-black, without bloom, nearly a half -inch in diameter; flesh thin, variable in quality but often sour and astringent; season late July; stone turgid, nearly round.
Prunus pumila, the Sand Cherry, or Dwarf Cherry, of eastern America, is found on sandy and rocky, inland shores from Maine to the District of Coliimbia and northwestward to the Lake of the Woods in Canada. In particular it is common on the sand dunes of the Great Lakes. Every- where in the wild state it grows in light sands suggesting its use in arid soils and especially on poor soils in cold climates.
As yet there seem to be no named varieties of this cherry known to fruit-growers, its nearly related species, Pruniis besseyi, offering greater opportunities to both the fruit-grower and the experimenter. Both the plants and fruits are so variable, the size, color and quality of the crop on some plants being quite attractive, that it is certain an opportunity to domesticate a worthy native plant is being overlooked. The species ought to have value, too, as a stock on which to work other cherries for sandy soils, dwarf trees and exacting climates.
PRUNUS CUNEATA Rafinesque.
I. Rafinesque i4M«. Nat. 11. 1820. 2. Bailey Cor. Ex. Sta. Bui. 38:101. 1892. 3. Britton and Brown III. Flora 2:250. 1897. 4. Gray Afan. Bel. ed. 7:498. 1908. P. pumila cuneata. 5. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 3:1451. 1901.
Primus cuneata, sometimes called the Appalachian cherry, is not growing at this Station but is described in the references given as very similar to the Sand Cherry, differing in the following respects:
The plant is dwarf er but is more erect never having prostrate branches ; the branches are smoother and lighter colored; the leaves are shorter, more oval, more obtuse, thinner, less conspicuously veined, teeth fewer and the points more appressed; the flowers are larger, petals broader and are borne on slightly curled stems in umbels of two to four; the fruit and stone in the two species are much the same, possibly averaging smaller in this species.
The habitat of Prunus cuneata is from Maine to North Carolina and northwest to Minnesota, being most commonly found in jvet, stiff soils near lakes and bogs but often found on rocky hills if the soil be not too dry.
36 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
It is doubtful if this cherry is as promising for cultivation as the foregoing species and not nearly as worthy attention as the next cherry.
I PRUNUS BESSEYI BaUey.
I. Bailey Cor. Ex. Sta. Bui. 70:261. 1894. 2. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3:156. 1895. 3. Bessey Neb. Hort. Soc. 26:168. 1895. Bessey /. c. 37:i2i- 1906. 4. Britton and Brown ///. Flora 3:251. 1897.
P. pumila Besseyi. 5. Waugh Vt. Ex. Sla. Rpt. 12:239. 1898-99. 6. BaUey Cyc. Am. Hort.
3:1451. 1901.
Plant a small shrub, spreading or diffuse, one to four feet in height, open-centered, slow-growing, hardy ; trunk slender, smooth ; branches slender, smooth, very dark brownish- black, with numerous lenticels; branchlets slender, short, with short intemodes, dull grayish-brown becoming almost black, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, small, raised lenticels.
Leaves hanging late, numerous, small, two and three-eighths inches long, one inch wide, thick, stiff, slightly folded upward or nearly flat; apex with a short taper-point, broadly lanceolate to nearly oval-lanceolate; upper surface dark green, glossy, smooth; lower surface very light green, not pubescent; midrib distinct, glabrous; veins small but distinct; margin serrate, teeth appressed, tipped with indistinct, sharp glands; petiole thick, three-eighths inch in length, glandless or with from one to two very small, light colored, globose glands on the petiole at the base of the leaf; stipules very prominent, almost leaf -like.
Flowers appearing with the leaves in sessile umbels, small, less than a half-inch across, white; fruit more than a half -inch in diameter, globose, sometimes oblong-pointed, yellowish, mottled or more often purple-black; variable in quality but always more or less astringent; ripening in early August; stone large, globose, slightly flattened.
The habitat of Primus besseyi is not yet definitely bounded but it can, at least, be said that this species is to be found on the prairies from Manitoba and Minnesota to southern Kansas and westward into Montana, Wyoming and Utah. In its natural range it undoubtedly runs into that of Primus pumila to the east, and Waugh, in the reference given, holds that the two species grade into each other and he, therefore, makes this a variety of the eastern species. Certainly Primus pumila and Primus besseyi are as distinct as are many other of the more or less indefinite species of this genus — few, indeed, are the species of Prunus that do not have outliers which overlap other types and, as we shall see, there are hybrids between this and species of other cherries, plums and even peaches and apricots, showing that the lines of demarcation between the members of this genus are difficult to define.
Although Primus besseyi has received attention from horticulturists less than a quarter-century it has aroused much interest, best indicated
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 37
by the fact that now a considerable number of varieties of the species are under cultivation and there are more than a score of hybrids dis- seminated in which it is one of the parents. Indians, trappers and early settlers have long used the wild fruit under the name of Western Sand Cherry, Bessey's Cherry and Rocky Mountain Cherry. Among pioneers this cherry was held in high esteem for sauces, pies and preserves and, where there was a dearth of cultivated cherries, was eaten with relish out of hand. The flesh is tender, juicy and, while astringent as commonly found, plants bearing aromatic and very palatable cherries are often found growing wild while some of the domesticated plants bear very well-flavored fruits. All speak of the Sand Cherry as wonderful in productiveness and as having remarkable capacity to withstand the vicissitudes of the exacting climate in which it grows. A valuable asset of Prunus besseyi is its great variability. Fruit from different plants varies in size, color and flavor suggesting that, under cultivation, amelioration will proceed rapidly. The plants of this species root freely from layers or root-cuttings and are therefore easily propagated and multiplied.
But it is in its hybrids that this western cherry has proved most valuable in horticulture. There are now hybrids under cultivation between this species and the Sand plum (Prunus augustifolia watsoni), the Hortulana plum {Prunus hortulana) , the Simonii plum {Prunus simonii), the Japanese plum {Prunus triflora), the American plum {Prumis ameri- cana), the Cherry plum {Primus cerasijera), the Sweet Cherry {Primus avium), the peach {Prunus persica), the apricots {Primus armeniaca and Primus mume), and the common plum {Prunus domestica). It would almost seem that this species is the " go-between " of the many and varied types of the genus Prunus. It is true that few of these hybrids yet shine as orchard plants but, given time, it seems certain that some will prove valuable in general horticiolture and that many will be grown in the special horticulture of the northern Mississippi Valley and the adjoin- ing plains to the west. Credit must be given to Professor N. E. Hansen of the South Dakota Experiment Station for most of our present knowl- edge of hybridism between this and other species.^
In his work with this species Hansen has also found that Prunus besseyi makes a very good stock for peaches, apricots, Japanese and native plums and that, while it does not so readily consort with the true cherries, yet
'See bulletins 87 (1904), 88 (1904), 108 (1908) and 130 (1911) from the South Dakota Experiment Station, Brookings, S. D.
38 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
it can be used as a stock for them. On the other hand larger fruits of the Sand Cherry can be grown when it is budded on stocks of the American plum, Prunus americana.
MINOR SPECIES
Besides these well-recognized species of cultivated cherries there are several others that play a much less conspicuous part in horticulture. Prunus fruticosa Pallas, the Dwarf Cherry of Europe, is much cultivated, more especially its botanical variety pendula, as an ornamental and some- what for its fruit. According to Wilson,' Prunus invohicrata Koehne is grown for its fruit in the gardens of China; the fruits, he says, are " small and lacking in flavour." The fruits of Primus eniarginata Walpers are eaten by the Indians on the Pacific Coast and the early settlers used the species as a stock for orchard cherries. Prunus jacquetnontii Hooker, the Dwarf Cherry of Afghanistan and Tibet, is occasionally in culture for its fruit and as a park plant; so also is another dwarf cherry from southwestern Asia, Prunus incana Steven. Prunus pseudocerasus Lindley, the Flowering Cherry of Japan, is a well-known ornamental the world over and in Japan is used as a stock for orchard cherries for which purpose, as we have suggested in the discussion of stocks, it ought to be tried in America.
' Wilson, E. H. A Naturalist in Western Chitta 2:27. 1913.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 39
CHAPTER n
THE HISTORY OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES
THE ANCIENT USE OF CHERRIES
History casts no direct light upon the period when the cherry first came under cultivation. Undoubtedly primitive men in all parts of the North Temperate Zone enlivened their scanty fruit fare with wild cherries. Cultivated cherries, we know, had their origin in the Old World. But history tells us nothing of the period when Europe and Asia were unbroken forests inhabitated by savages who eked out a precarious subsistence by the pursuit of the chase and from meagre harvests of wild grains, fruits and vegetables. On these continents agriculture and rude civilization began in ages immemorial and cultivated plants diversified, enriched and adorned the landscapes long before the first written records. Our knowl- edge of how wild cherries have been remodeled into the orchard and garden varieties of to-day — of what the methods and processes of domestication have been — is, therefore, doubtful and limited, for the mind and hand of man had been deeply impressed upon the cherry long before the faint traditions which have been transmitted to our day could possibly have arisen.
The history of the cherry, then, goes back to primitive man. Direct proof of the ancient use of cherries is fvimished by the finding of cherry- pits of several species in the deposits of Swiss lake-dwellings, in the mounds and clifT-caves of prehistoric inhabitants of America and in the ancient rubbish-heaps of Scandinavian countries. There are but few regions in which cultivated cherries are grown in which the inhabitants in times of stress, or by choice in times of plenty, do not now use as food wild cherries, some species of which grow in abundance and under the most varied conditions, almost from the Arctic Circle to within a few degrees of the Tropic of Cancer in a belt encircling the globe. It is probable that all of the wild species which have furnished fruit to the aborigines or to the modem inhabitants of a region have been sparingly cultivated — at the very least if they possessed any considerable food value they have been more or less widely distributed by the hand of man. But, curiously enough, out of the score or more of species of which the fruit is used as food as the plants grow wild, but two may be said to be truly domesti- cated. These are the Sour, or Pie Cherry, Prunus cerasus, and the Sweet
40 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Cherry, Prmias avium, with the histories of which we are now to be concerned.
PUny is generally accredited as the first historian of the cherry. Nearly eighteen and a half centuries ago he gave an account of the cherries of Rome with the statement that Luciillus, the Roman soldier and gourmet, had brought them to Rome 65 years before Christ^ from the region of the Black Sea. This particular in the account proves to be a good illus- tration of the adage that old errors strike root deeply. Though disproved beyond all question of doubt time and time again by botanists and historians, Pliny's inadvertence is still everywhere current in text-books, pomologies and cyclopaedias — a mis-statement started, repeated and perpetuated from medieval days when to be printed in Pliny was sufficient proof. That LucuUus brought to Italy a cherry and one which the Romans did not know there is no reason to doubt, but other cherries there must have been, not only wild but cultivated, of Primus cerasus at least and probably of Primus avium, and in comparative abundance long before Lucullus, returning from the war in Pontus with Mithridates, brought to Rome a cherry. With this brief mention of Pliny's inaccuracy, we pass to more substantial facts in the history of the cherry.
The domestication of one or the other of the two generally cultivated species of cherries followed step by step the changes from savagery to civilization in the countries of Europe and of western Asia. For, as one sorts the accumulated stores of botanical and historical evidence, it becomes quickly apparent that both the Sweet and the Sour Cherry now grow wild and long have done so in the region named and that, from the time tillage of plants was first practiced in the Old World, this fruit has been under cultivation, feeble, obscure, and interrupted by war and chase though its cultivation may have been. Certainly the history of the cherry is as old as that of agriculture in the southern European countries and is interwritten with it.
In beginning the history of a cultivated plant the first step is to ascertain where it grows spontaneously — where it may be found unplanted and unattended by man. This is the task now before us for Primus cerasus and Prunus avium, discussing them in the order named.
' See quotation on page 45.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 4 1
THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES
Primus cerasus, of which the Montmorency is the commonest repre- sentative in America, is now to be found wild wherever Sour Cherries are much grown, for it is a favorite food of many birds which quickly scatter its seeds from centers of cultivation. Nearly all of the botanies of tem- perate regions in which agriciilture is carried on name this cherry as an escape from cultivation into woods and hedgerows and along roadsides. The Sour Cherry, then, is now to be found truly wild in many parts of several continents. It is not so easy to say where the habitat and what the condition before the species was cultivated. But botany, archaeology, history and philology indicate that the original habitat of the Sour Cherry is southeastern Eiu"ope and the nearby countries in Asia.
After saying that this cherry has been found wild in the forests of Asia Minor, the plains of Macedonia, on Mount Olympus and in neigh- boring territories, De CandoUe, however, limits its habitat to the region " from the Caspian Sea to the environments of Constantinople."' But as a wild plant this cherry must have spread over a far greater area. Even the broadest boundaries of the habitat of Prunus cerasus as set by De Candolle show over-caution. Thus, the Marasca cherry, a botanical variety of Prunus cerasus, is most certainly wild in the Province of Dalmatia on the Adriatic Sea in Austria; so, too, it is certain that this species is feral as far away from De CandoUe' s center of distribution as northern Austria and southern Germany and has been so for untold ages. It is safe to say that the original source of the Sour Cherry was the territory lying between Switzerland and the Adriatic Sea on the west and the Caspian Sea and probably somewhat farther north on the east. That is, our savage forefathers must have found this cherry in the region thus outlined, probably in a much more extended territory, into which it was brought in more or less remote times by agencies other than hviman from De CandoUe's smaller area of origin.
It is easier to define the geographic range of the wild Sweet Cherry. Botanists very generally agree that Prunus avium as a wild plant inhabits all of the mainland of Europe in which the cultivated varieties of the species can be grown — that is, most of the continent south of Sweden and may be found wild well into southern Russia. The species is reported sparingly wild in northern Africa and is a very commop wild plant in
' De Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants 207. 1885.
42 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
southern Asia as far east as northern India. It must not be thought that the plant is everywhere abundant in the great area outUned as its habitat. To the contrary, the Sweet Cherry is an uncommon wild plant in Spain, Italy and other parts of southern Europe. All authorities agree that the region of greatest communal intensity for Primus avium is between the Caspian and Black Seas and south of these bodies of water. It might suffice to say that from about these seas the Sweet Cherry came — that here grew the trunk from which branches were spread into other lands by birds and animals carrying the seeds from place to place. The most important fact to be established, however, is that this cherry has long grown spontaneously over a widely extended territory and may, therefore, have been domesticated in several widely separated regions.
THE CHERRY IN GREECE; THE FIRST RECORD OF CULTURE AND THE NAME
Having established the habitats of the two cultivated cherries we may next ask when and where their cultivation began. The domesti- cation of plants probably began in China — certainly Chinese agricultiire long antedates that of any other nation now in existence of which we have records. Agriculture in China, historians roughly approximate, goes back 4,000 years. But while the Chinese have many other species of cherry, as we have seen, some of which may be said to be partially domesticated, Prunus cerasus and Primus avium are not found wild in China and were only in recent years introduced there as cultivated plants. Neither does the cherry of our civilization seem to have been known in the second great agriciJtural region of the world — ■ Egypt and the extreme south- west of Asia. At least there are no words for the cherry in the languages of the peoples of that region and cherry pits have not been found with the remains of other plants in the tombs and ruins of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. Nor does the cherry seem to have been cultivated in India until comparatively recent times.
These very brief and general statements show that cherries were not cultivated in the first agricultural civilizations and serve to fix the time and the place of the domestication of the cherry a little more definitely. Records of cherries as cultivated plants begin, so far as the researches of botanical historians now show, with Greek civilization though it is probable, for several reasons, that some cultivated cherries came to Greece from Asia Minor.
Theophrastus, to whom Linnaeus gave the title " Father of Botany,"
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 43
writing about 300 years before the Christian era in his History of Plants, is, according to botanical historians, the first of the Greek writers to mention the che ry. His statement is as follows: — -
" The cherry is a peculiar tree, of large size, some attaining the height of twenty-four cubits, rather thick, so that they may measure two cubits in circumference at the base. The leaf is like that of the mespilus, rather firm and broader, the color of the foliage such that the tree may be distinguished from others at a good distance. The bark, by its color, smoothness and thickness, is like that of tilia. The flower [meaning, the cluster of flowers] is white, resembhng that of the pear and mespilus, con- sisting of small [separate] flowers. The fruit is red, similar to that of diospyros [but what his diospyros was no one knows] of the size of a faba [perhaps nelumbo seed], which is hard, but the cherry is soft. The tree grows in the same situations as tilia; by streams."^
From this passage we gather that the cherry Theophrastus knew was the Sweet Cherry, Primus avium; the description shows it to be the same large, tall treee now naturalized in open woods and along roadsides in many parts of the United States. From the fact that Theophrastus describes the tree and the bark in more detail than the fruit we may assume that the cherry was more esteemed in ancient Greece as a timber- tree than as a fruit-tree. Curiously enough the name the Greeks at this time used for the Sweet Cherry is now applied to Primus cerasus, the Sour Cherry.
" Kerasos " was the Sweet Cherry in ancient Greece and from kerasos came cerasus, used by many botanists as the name of the genus. That the Sweet Cherry should by the use of avium be denominated the " bird cherry " is clear since birds show much discrimination between cherries, but why the Sour Cherry should be given the specific name cerasus, first applied to the Sweet Cherry, is not apparent.
Pages are written in the old pomologies and botanical histories as to the origin of the word cerasus. Pliny's statement that Lucvillus called the cherry cerasus from the town from which he obtained it, Kerasun in Pontus, on the Black Sea, is, in the light of all who have since looked into the matter, a misconception. To the contrary, commentators now agree that the town received its name from the cherry which grows most abun- dantly in the forests in that part of Asia IVIinor. The name, according to all authorities, is very ancient — a linguistic proof of the antiquity of the cherry.
* Theophrastus, Book III, Chap. 13.
44 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
To sum up, the cherry comes into Hterature first from Greece in the writings of Theophrastus. There can be but little doubt, however, but that it had been cultivated for centuries before Theophrastus wrote. Whether one or both of the two cherries were domesticated by the Greeks, beginning with their civilization, or whether cultivated cherries came to Greece from Asia Minor, is not now known. It is very probable that some of the several varieties grown in Greece came imder cultivation through domestication of wild plants; others were introduced from regions farther east.
THE SWEET CHERRY POSSIBLY THE PARENT OF THE SOUR CHERRY
A digression may be permitted here to state a hypothesis suggested by De CandoUe' which should interest both fruit-growers and plant- breeders. De CandoUe, while considering the two species of cultivated cherries to be now quite distinct, suggests that, since they differ essentially but little in their characters and since their original habitats were in the same region, it is probable that one species came from the other. He surmises, since Prunus avium is the commoner in the original home, is generally the more vigorous of the two, has spread much farther and probably at a much earlier date from the primal habitation in Asia Minor than Prunus cerasus, that the latter, the Sour Cherry, is derived from the Sweet Cherry. In the future breeding of cherries confirmatory evidence of such a relationship may be obtained though, should none be found, the negation should go for naught and the supposition can only remain an interesting and plausible hypothesis.
THE CHERRY IN ITALY
Pliny attempts to give the first full account of cultivated cherries and, even though among his statements are several inaccuracies, yet he may be said to have made a very good beginning of a flora of cultivated cherries for he names and describes ten varieties. The fact that there were as many as ten cherries in Italy at the time Pliny wrote, less than a century after the return of LucuUus from Pontus, is strong evidence that the cherry in Italy antedates Lucullus. Besides, it is hardly probable that Pliny knew and described all of the cherries to be found in the whole of his country. But even if these ten comprise the entire number, those who know how extremely difficult it is to introduce new plants in
' De CandoUe, Alphonse Origin of Cultivated Plants 210. 1885.
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a country with the facilities we have in our day, will doubt that all of the cherries in Pliny's account could have been introduced in Italy 1900 years ago and have come under general cultivation, as according to Pliny they had, within the short space of a century. The following quotation, then, must be taken as an account of the cherries grown in Italy in the first century after Christ with little weight given to the historical evidence presented.^
" The cherry did not exist in Italy before the period of the victory gained over Mithridates by L. LucuUus, in the year of the City 680. He was the first to introduce this tree from Pontus, and now, in the course of one hundred and twenty years, it has travelled beyond the Ocean, and arrived in Britannia even. The cherry, as we have already stated, in spite of every care, has been found impossible to rear in Egypt. Of this fruit, that known as the " Apronian " is the reddest variety, the Lutatian being the blackest, and the Caecilian perfectly round. The Junian cherr>^ has an agreeable flavour, but only, so to say, when eaten beneath the tree, as they are so remarkably delicate that they will not bear carrying. The highest rank, however, has been awarded to the Duracinus variety, known in Campania as the " Plinian " cherry, and in Belgica to the Lusitanian cherry, as also to one that grows on the banks of the Rhenus. This last kind has a third colour, being a mixture of black, red, and green, and has always the appearance of being just on the turn to ripening. It is less than five years since the kind known as the " laurel-cherry " was introduced, of a bitter but not unpleasant flavoixr, the produce of a graft upon the laurel. The Macedonian cherry grows on a tree that is very small, and rarely exceeds three cubits in height; while the chamaecerasus is still smaller, being but a mere shrub. The cherry is one of the first trees to recompense the cultivator with its yearly growth; it loves cold localities and a site exposed to the north. The fruits are sometimes dried in the sun, and preserved, like olives, in casks."
How are the cherries described in the passage from Pliny related to those of modern culture? A score or more of commentators have tried to tell but when the comments are compared Pliny's disorder becomes confusion worse confounded. Here, as in his historical statements, Pliny seems to have prepared the ground for a fine crop of misunderstandings. The spectilations as to what particular cherry each of the descriptions fits quickly show the futility of specification. A few generalizations only are warranted.
Thus, if we assume, as most commentators do, that Apronian, the
' Bostock and Riley iVa/. History of Pliny 3:322. 1855.
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first of Pliny's varieties, was named after Apronius, a Roman praetor of Pliny's day, there is nothing to indicate the character of the cherry except the word " reddest " which means but little for it is no more possible to distinguish cherries by redness than by its blackness to tell a pot from a kettle.
It is as impossible to distinguish the second variety as the first. The name given is Lutatian, the variety having been dedicated, as all com- mentators agree, to Lutatius Catulus, a contemporary of LucuUus, revered by Romans for having rebuilt the capitol after it had been destroyed by fire. It is described as " being the blackest " but whether Primus avium or Prunus cerasus, sweet or sovu*, who can tell ?
The third variety is called the CaecUian cherry, which we are told is " perfectly round " — a character possessed in like degree by many cherries. The name, on the authority of Latin scholars, commemorates the Caecilius family, rich and powerful Romans, friends of Lucullus at the time he was promoting cherry culture.
We may be a little more certain of the identity of the fourth cherry, called the Junian, and said to have been possessed of "an agreeable flavor but only, so to say, when eaten beneath the tree, as they are so remark- ably delicate that they will not bear carrying." Whether the name was given in honor of the Roman Republican, Junius Brvitus, who died 42 A. D. or from Junius, the month of their ripening, cannot be said. The description, as practically all agree, fits very well the French Guigne or English Gean group of cherries. It is probable that " Guigne " is a per- version of " Junian."
There can be little question as to the cherry Pliny next describes, "the Duracinus variety" which he says has been awarded "highest rank" and to which he paid the compliment of giving it his own name, for he tells us that it is "known in Campania as the Plinian cherry." This hard-fleshed cherry of delectable quality can be no other than a Bigarreau ^ some protean Napoleon, Yellow Spanish, Windsor or the older Oxheart and Elkhorn.
The sixth cherry is the Lusitanian, which, if the translations read aright, the Belgians rank highest. Ancient Lusitania is modern Portugal and the Lusitanian cherry may be the Griotte of Portugal grown from time immemorial in that country. The identity of the variety is not so important in this passage as is the connection that Pliny establishes in cherry culture at this early time between Portugal, Italy and Belgium.
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By such tokens does our author cast doubt upon his statement that Lucullus had but yesterday, as it were, brought the cherry from Pontus.
The seventh cherry is one " that grows on the banks of the Rhenus " (Rhine), further described as " being a mixture of black, red and green," and of having " always the appearance of being just on the turn to ripen- ing." It is useless to add another guess to those of the many commentators as to what this tri-colored cherry from the banks of the Rhine may be.
The eighth description, that of the "laxorel-cherry," applies to a graft and not to a variety. Of it, Pliny says, "It is less than five years since the kind known as the laurel-cherry was introduced, of a bitter, but not unpleasant flavor, the produce of a graft upon the laiirel." It is barely possible that a cherry could be made to grow on a laurel five years but it is extremely doubtful, as all modern horticulturists who have tried it say, and it is impossible to have such a graft bear fruit. Pliny was misinformed.
The ninth and tenth of Pliny's cherries, the Macedonian and the Chamaecerasus, are probably one and the same, since but one cherry that covdd possibly answer to the descriptions given could have been in Italy at the time Pliny wrote. The cherry described, then, was almost beyond doubt Prunus fruticosa PaUas, a synonym of which is Primus ckamaecerasus Jacquin, perpetuating the name used by PUny. This is the European Dwarf Cherry, or Ground Cherry, which is now and was probably then a wild plant in parts of Italy and which is very well described by " a tree that is very small, and rarely exceeds three cubits in height."
We have accredited PHny with having first described cherries in Italy and discredited his account of their introduction in his own country, but chiefly on inferential evidence. Just a few words of direct proof that the cherry was long in ciiltivation by the Romans before Lucullus and we have done with the introduction of the cherry into Italy and have filled another gap between Theophrastus and our own times. Marcus Terentius Varro (B. C. 117-27), one of the illustrious scholars of ancient Rome, sometimes called the father of Roman learning, in his eightieth year, as he tells us in his first chapter, wrote a book on farming — one, which, by the way, may be read with profit by modem farmers.' In book I, chapter XXXIX, he tells when to graft cherries, discussing the process not as if it or the cherry were new or little known but as if the cherry were
' A very good translation of Varro on farming is one by Lloyd Starr-Best, published by G. Bell & Sons, London. 1912.
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as commonplace as the other agricultural crops of the times. Varro effectually disproves Pliny to whose mis-statement we have given so much space only because for nearly 2000 years it has been generally accepted as the truth.
The gaps in the history of the cherry are long. Athenaeus,' Ter- tuUian,^ Ammianus,^ and St. Jerome/ Roman writers of the Third and Foiirth Centuries, mention cherries but chiefly to repeat and perpetuate Pliny's errors. It was not until the Sixteenth Century — a lapse of 1400 years — that an attempt was again made to describe in full cultivated cherries. Sometime in this century, Matthiolus (1487-1577), a Tuscan and one of the eminent naturalists not only of Italy but of the world in the Middle Ages, in translating and annotating the medical works of the Greek writer Dioscorides, made a list of the fruit-trees then grown in Italy. As the second descriptive list of cherries this contribution of Matthiolus might be worth reprinting were it not, as in Pliny, that but few of his varieties can be certainly made out. He does, however, make a number of additions to Pliny's list but space does not permit a consideration of these; especially since Gerarde, writing less than a century later in English, so well amplifies Matthiolus that we shall print his account.
CHERRIES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Pliny mentions the cherry as growing in several countries and, by reading between lines, we may assume that cultivated cherries were dis- tributed throughout all parts of Europe where agriculture was practiced, by Christ's time or shortly thereafter. Pliny speaks of the cherry in some connection with England, Germany, Belgium and Portugal. Surely we may assume that the cherry was being grown at the same time in at least the countries in Europe which are between or border on those named. But from Pliny to the Sixteenth Century the current of progress in cherry culture was immeasurably slow. In the intervening 1600 years not a score of new cherries were brought under cultivation. Attention was probably given during these dark ages to this and to all fruits as species and as divisions of species which came nearly or quite true to seed. It was only in the refinements of horticulture and botany brought about by the her- balists that true horticultural varieties came into common cultivation.
' Athenaeus Dipnosophistce Book II, Chap. XXXIV-V.
* Tertullian Apologeticum Chap. XI.
'Ammianus History 0} the Roman Emperors Book 22, Chap. XVI.
« St. Jerome Epislulae Book I, Letter XXXV.
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Thus, the first of the German herbals, the Herbarius, printed at Mainz in 1491, does not describe or even name varieties of cherries but groups them in the two species as Sweets and Sours, the statement run- ning:^ "The cherries are some sweet, some sour, like the wild apple; the soiirs bring to the stomach gas and make the mouth fresh (frisch), those too sweet or too sour are of little use." A wood-cut in this old herbal illustrates a Sour Cherry.
According to Miiller,- not until 1569 did the Germans attempt to give names to varieties, when, in a medical herbal, the Gart der Gesimdheit, cherries were roughly divided into four groups: (i) The AmareUen, sour, dark red cherries with long stems. (2) The Weichselkirschen, red cherries with white juice and short stems. (3) The Siisskirschen, red or black Sweet Cherries with long stems. (4) " Beside these yet more " distinguished by their shape and the province in which they are grown. Not until well into the Eighteenth Century do the Germans seem to have given names to more than a few of the most distinct varieties of cherries. Yet the cherry was more largely cultivated in Germany, one, two, or three centimes ago, as it is now, than in any other Eiu"opean country. This, one readily gleans from what has been written on cherries in different countries and from the acknowledgments of foreign pomologists to those of Germany for most of what has been printed regarding cherries. Not only has the cherry been a favorite orchard plant in Germany but since the Sixteenth Century it has been largely planted along the public roads.
Of cherries on the continent, for this brief history, nothing more need be said. Most of the varieties that have been imported from Europe to America have come from England and we must, therefore, devote rather more attention to the history of the cherry in England than in other European countries.
CHERRIES IN ENGLAND
Cultivated cherries came to England with the Romans. Prunus avium is indigenous in Great Britain but probably no care worthy the name cultivation was given these wild trees by the ancient Britons. Pliny states that the cherry was carried from Rome to Britain before the middle of the First Century — meaning probably some improved variety. In no part of the world does the cherry take more kindly to the soil than in
' Quoted from Muller, Hugo M. Obstzuchter 8:3. 1910.
2 Ibid.
4
50 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
England and no doubt this fruit became firmly established in Kent, where the Romans settled, before the downfall of the southern invaders. With the expulsion of the Romans and the subsequent influx of barbarians, agriculture, especially gardening and fruit-growing, became almost a lost art but still it is not probable that the cherry was wholly lost to cultivation during the Teutonic invasions of Britain.
Fruit-growing coiild not have greatly prospered, however, in the centiiries of strife with the barbarians which succeeded Roman rule in England; and a revival of cherry culture did not take place until the rein- troduction of Christianity and the establishment of monasteries where, undisturbed by wars, the monks became notable horticulturists. They not only had opportunity in the comparative peace in which their lives were cast to grow fruit but many of them were men of superior intelligence and skill and from intercourse with the continental countries learned what plants were worth growing and how to grow them — the monasteries were the experiment stations of the times. Undoubtedly the monks in bringing to England treasures from the continent did not forget fruits and among them cherries.
Passing by a considerable number of references which could be cited to show that cherries of one kind and another were cultivated in Britain from at least as early a date as the Ninth Century, we come to the dis- cussion of this fruit by the herbalists of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centiiries. Of the three great English herbalists, Turner published his work in 1538; Gerarde's, printed in 1596, was revised and greatly improved by Johnson in 1633; Parkinson's Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, or Park-in-Suns Earthly Paradise — the author evidently a punster — was published in 1629. All of these contain as full botanical and pomological discussions of cherries as knowledge then permitted.
It must not be thought, by those unacquainted with the plant-lore of the times, that the cherry received consideration only from the pens of Turner, Gerarde, and Parkinson. During the time covered by the lives of these three men a score or more of books were written in English on botany and pomology in which accounts were given of the cherry, all showing the esteem in which this fruit was held in England during and before the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Space permits comments on the account of the cherry given by but one of these Elizabethan herbalists, and of the several Gerarde's seems best suited to our purpose.
We have chosen Gerarde because he treats the cherry more fully
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than do the other writers of the period and because he was a compiler and a translator, having, as he quaintly says, " perused divers Herbals set foiuth in other languages;" thus from Gerarde we obtain a conception of cherries growing on the continent as well as those growing in England. Students of the English herbals say that Gerarde translated, copied and adapted from Matthiolus, whose book we have noted, but more particularly from Dodoens who in 1554 published in Antwerp A History of Plants. These two worthies, in turn, had borrowed very freely from still more ancient writers — Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Columella and others. As might be suspected, errors centuries old were passed down, yet each new translation or compilation contains much added information and is far freer from error. In particular, Gerarde seems to have been a wise com- piler and adapter and to have combined a large measure of first-hand practical knowledge with his borrowings from others. This is especially true of what he writes concerning cherries, a fruit with which he seems to have been very familiar.
The following is Gerarde's account, with interpolations by the author:
" The ancient Herbalists have set down four kinds of Cherry trees; the first is great and wild, the second tame or of the garden, the third hath sour fruit, the fourth is that which is called in Latin Chamaecerasus, or the dwarfe Cherry tree. The later writers have foimd divers sorts more, some bringing forth great fruit, others lesser; some with white fruit, some with blacke, others of the colour of black bloud, varying infinitely according to the clymat and country where they grow."
The fovir cherries which Gerarde says the " ancient herbalists have set down " are, it is easy to see: first, the wild Primus avium; second, cultivated sweet varieties of Prunus avium; third, the sour Prunus cerasus; fourth, the Dwarf Cherry, Prunus fruticosa.
" The English Cherry tree groweth to a high and great tree, the body whereof is of a mean bignesse, which is parted above into very many boughes, with a barke somewhat smooth, of a brown crimson colour, tough and pliable; the substance or timber is also brown in the middle, and the outer part is somewhat white: the leaves be great, broad, long, set with veins or nerves, and sleigh tly nicked about the edges: the floures are white, of a mean bigness, consisting of five leaves, and having certain threds in the middle of the like colovir. The Cherries be round, hanging upon long stems or footstalks, with a stone in the middest which is covered with a pulp or soft meat; the kemell thereof is not unpleasant to the taste, though somewhat bitter."
52 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
This is Prunus avium, which is very generally wild in Britain — the Gean of the English.
" The Flanders Cherry tree differeth not from our English Cherry tree in Statiire or form of leaves or floiires, the only difference is, that this tree brings forth his fruit sooner and greater than the other, where- fore it may be called in Latine, Cerasus praecox, sive Belgica."
A cherry which " brings forth his fruit sooner and greater than the other " can be no other than one of the early varieties of the Sweet Cherry.
" The Spanish Cherry tree groweth up to the height of our common Cherry tree, the wood or timber is soft and loose, covered with a whitish scaly barke, the branches are knotty, greater and fuller of substance than any other Cherry tree; the leaves are likewise greater and longer than any of the rest, in shape like those of the Chestnut tree: the floures are like the others in form, but whiter of colour; the fruit is greater and longer than any, white for the most part all over, except those that stand in the hottest place where the sun hath some reflexion against a wall: they are also white within, and of a pleasant taste."
We have in this description a very good pen picture of YeUow Spanish, one of the Bigarreaus, of which there must have been several in common cultivation in Gerarde's time.
" The Gascoin Cherry tree groweth very like to the Spanish Cherry tree in stature, flours and leaves: it differeth in that it bringeth forth very great Cherries, long, sharp pointed, with a certain hoUownesse upon one side, and spotted here and there with certain prickles of purple color as smal as sand. The taste is most pleasant, and excelleth in beauty."
Gascoin, sometimes "Gaskin" in England, is a corruption of Gas- coigne, a name applied by the French to cherries produced in Gascony and said to have been brought to England by Joan of Kent when her hus- band, the Black Prince, was commanding in Guienne and Gascony. The variety is a very good Sweet Cherry, no doubt the one described in this text under the name Bleeding Heart.
" The late ripe Cherry tree groweth up like unto our wild English Cherry tree, with the like leaves, branches and floures, saving that they are sometimes once doubled; the fruit is small, round, and of a darke bloudy colour when they be ripe, which the French-men gather with their stalkes, and hang them up in their houses in bunches or handfuUs against Winter, which the Physitions do give unto their patients in hot and burning fevers, being first steeped in a little warme water, that causeth them to swell and plumpe as full and fresh as when they did grow upon the tree.
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' ' The Cluster Cherry tree differeth not from the last described either in leaves, branches, or statiire: the floiires are also like, but never commeth any one of them to be double. The fruit is round, red when they be ripe, and many growing upon one stem or foot-stalke in clusters, like as the Grapes do. The taste is not unpleasant although somewhat soure."
These two cherries, one sees at once, are varieties of Prunus cerasus. The first, Gerarde identifies for us on a succeeding page as the Morello. He says of it: "The late ripe cherries which the Frenchmen keepe dried against the winter, and are by them called MoreUe, and wee after the same name call them Morell Cherries.
" This Cherrie-tree with double floures growes up unto a small tree, not unlike to the common Cherrie-tree in each respect, saving that the floures are somewhat double, that is to say, three or foure times double; after which commeth fruit (though in small quantitie) like the other com- mon Cherry.
" The double floured Cherry-tree growes up like unto an hedge bush, but not so great nor high as any of the others, the leaves and branches differ not from the rest of the Cherry-tree. The floixres hereof are exceed- ing double, as are the flours of Marigolds, but of a white colour, and smelling somewhat like the Hawthorne floures; after which come seldome or never any fruit, although some Authors have said that it beareth some- times fruit, which my selfe have not at any time seen; notwithstanding the tree hath growne in my Garden many yeeres, and that in an excellent good place by a bricke wall, where it hath the reflection of the South Sunne, fit for a tree that is not willing to beare fruit in our cold climat."
These two are double-flowered cherries, several of which seem to have been grown as ornamentals. Both belong to Prunus cerasus and as we gather rather better elsewhere than here, both are of the Amarelle type of tree.
" The Birds Cherry-tree, or the blacke Cherry-tree, that bringeth forth very much fruit upon one branch (which better may be understood by sight of the figttre, than by words) springeth up like an Hedge tree of small stature, it groweth in the wilde woods of Kent, and are there used for stockes to graft other Cherries upon, of better tast, and more profit, as especially those called the Flanders Cherries: this wUde tree growes very plentifully in the North of England, especially at a place called Heggdale, neere unto Rosgill in Westmerland, and in divers other places about Crosbie Ravenswaith, and there called Hegberrie-tree : it groweth likewise in Martome Parke, foure miles from Blackebume, -and in Harward neere thereunto; in Lancashire almost in every hedge; the leaves and branches differ not from those of the wilde Cherry-tree: the floures grow
54 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
alongst the small branches, consisting of five small white leaves, with some greenish and yellow thrums in the middle: after which come the fruit, greene at the first, blacke when they be ripe, and of the bignesse of Sloes; of an harsh and unpleasant taste.
" The other birds Cherry-tree differeth not from the former in any respect, but in the colour of the berries; for as they are blacke; so on the contrary, these are red when they be ripe, wherein they differ."
The cherries described in these two paragraphs, one black and one red, "that bringeth forth very much fruit upon one branch" and " groweth in the wilde woods " and "of an harsh and unpleasant taste " are of course the Prunus padus of Britain and most of Europe — not a true cherry but the racemose Bird Cherry, or Choke Cherry.
" The common blacke Cherry-tree growes up in some places to great stature: there is no difference between it and our common Cherry-tree, saving that the fruit hereof is very little in respect of other Cherries, and of a blacke colour."
This must be some wild Gean or Mazzard.
" The dwarf e Cherry-tree groweth very seldome to the height of three cubits: the trunke or body small, covered with a darke coloured blacke: whereupon do grow very limber and pliant twiggie branches: the leaves are very small, not much unlike to those of the Privite bush: the floures are small and white: after which come Cherries of a deepe red colour when they be ripe, of taste somewhat sharpe, but not greatly unpleasant: the branches laid downe in the earth, quickely take root, whereby it is greatly increased."
Here we have Prunus fruticosa very well described.
" My selfe with divers others have sundry other sorts in our gardens, one called the Hart Cherry, the greater and the lesser; one of the great bignesse, and most pleasant in taste, which we call Luke Wardes Cherry, because he was the first that brought the same out of Italy; another we have called the Naples Cherry, because it was first brought into these parts from Naples: the fruit is very great, sharpe pointed, somewhat like a man's heart in shape, of a pleasant taste, and of a deepe blackish colour when it is ripe, as it were of the colour of dried bloud."
Gerarde's Hart is probably one of the Heart cherries, while " Luke Wardes Cherry " is one of the oldest named Sweet Cherries known in England, having been mentioned by Parkinson and other of the herbalists as well as in this list.
" We have another that bringeth forth Cherries also very great, bigger than any Flanders Cherrie, of the colour of Jet, or burnished home.
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and of a most pleasant taste, as witnesseth Mr. Bull, the Queenes Majesties Clockmaker, who did taste of the fruit (the tree bearing onely one cherry, which he did eat; but my selfe never tasted of it) at the impression hereof. We have also another, called the Agriot Cherry, of a reasonable good taste. Another we have with fruit of a dun colour, tending to a watchet. We have one of the Dwarfe Cherries, that bringeth forth fruit as great as most of our Flanders Cherries, whereas the common sort hath very small Cherries, and those of an harsh taste. These and many sorts more we have in our London gardens, whereof to write particularly would greatly enlarge our volume, and to small purpose: therefore, what hath beene said shall suffice. I must here (as I have formerly done, in Peares, Apples, and other such fruites) refer you to my two friends, Mr. John Parkinson, and Mr. John Millen, the one to furnish you with the history, and the other with the things themselves, if you desire them."
One can only roughly surmise as to what the cherries mentioned in this paragraph are with the exception of the Agriot which is, if the synonymy of several European pomologists be correct, the Griotte Com- mune, a sort supposed to have been brought from Syria by the crusaders and to have been recorded under the last name in France as early as 1485.
The end of the Seventeenth Century saw a great revival of agriculture in all of its branches on the continent; in England the revival began with the fall of the commonwealth. From this time the progress of cherry culttu-e has been so rapid and so great that it would be an endless task to give even a cursory view of it — a task unnecessary, too, for succeeding the herbalists a great number of botanies, pomologies and works on agri- culture were published to many of which reference is still easy. Moreover, the histories of varieties in this text carry us back quite to the beginning of the Eighteenth Century.
There now remains for the history of the cherry but to sketch its introduction and culture in North America, an undertaking that can be done briefly and to the point, for the data are abundant, recent and reliable. Here, too, accounts of the origin of varieties and the development of the cherry may be looked for in the chapters which comprise the main part of the book.
CHERRIES IN AMERICA
The cherry was one of the first fruits planted in the fields cleared and enriched by our hardy American ancestry. From Canada to Florida the colonists, though of several nationalities and those from one nation
56 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
often representing several quite distinct classes, were forced alike to turn at once to the cultivation of the soil as a means of subsistence. And while in all of the colonies the early settlers must have been busily engaged in the cultivation of cereals for the staff of life, in the South in growing cotton and tobacco for money and for purposes of barter, in the North in harvesting forest and fish products for bartering; yet the historians of the colonies notice so often and describe so fiolly and with such warmth of feeling the vegetables, flowers and fruits in the orchards and gardens of the New World that it is certain that the ground was tilled not only as a means of subsistence but because the tillers loved the luxuries of the land.
What fruit better adapted to the uses of colonists than the cherry? It possesses in a high degree, especially the Sour Cherry, the power of adaptation to new environment and thrives under a greater variety of conditions than any other of oiir fruits unless it be the apple, which it at least equals in this respect. The cherry is easily propagated; it comes in bearing early and bears regularly ; of all fruits it requires least care — gives the greatest returns under neglect; and the product is delectable and adapted to many purposes. We shall expect, then, in examining the early records of fruit-growing in America to find the cherry one of the first planted and one of the most widely disseminated of fruits.
CHERRIES PLANTED BY THE FRENCH IN AMERICA
While written records are lacking, the plantations of old trees and the development of cherry culture indicate that the French early planted cherries in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and in the early settlements on the St. Lawrence River. The cherry is a favorite fruit of the French and the venerable trees that survived on the sites of their settlements when the English came into possession of Canada are proof sufficient that the emigres from Provence or Normandy, fruit dis- tricts of France from which many French settlers came, brought with them seeds of the cherry with those of other fruits. Peter Kalm in his Travels into North America in 1771,' records the very general culture of all the hardy fruits in Canada and leaves the impression that such had been the case from the first settlements.
'KaJm, Peter Travels into North America 177 1.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 57
CHERRIES IN NEW ENGLAND
The cherry came to New England with the first settlers. This we are told in all the records of early New England in which the conditions of the country are described and of it we have confirmatory proof in many enormous cherry trees, Sweet and Sovir, both about ancient habitations and as escapes from cultivation in woods, fields and fence rows, all pointing to the early cultivation of this fruit. The early records are very specific. Thus, to quote a few out of an embarrassment of references: Francis Higginson writing in 1629, after naming the several other fruits then under cultivation in Massachusetts, notes that the Red Kentish is the only cherry cultivated.' In the same year, the i6th of March, 1629, a memorandum of the Massachusetts Company shows that " Stones of all sorts of fruites, as peaches, plums, filberts, cherries, pear, aple, quince kemeUs " were to be sent to New England.^
These seeds, provided by the home company with forethought of the need of orchards in the colony, evidently produced fruit trees suffi- cient to supply both hunger and thirst; for John Josselyn, who made voyages to New England in 1638, 1639 and 1663, writing of " New Eng- land's Rarities Discovered," says:^ "Our fruit Trees prosper abundantly. Apple-trees, Pear-trees, Quince-trees, Cherry-trees, Plum-trees, Barberry- trees. I have observed with admiration, that the Kernels sown or the Succors planted produce as fair and good fruit, without grafting, as the tree from whence they were taken: the Countrey is replenished with fair and large Orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a magistrate in Connecticut Colony) at the Captains Messe (of which I was) aboard the Ship I came home in, that he made Five himdred Hogsheads of Syder out of his own Orchard in one year. Syder is very plentiful in the Countrey, ordinarily sold for ten shillings a Hogshead.
" The Quinces, Cherries, Damsons, set the Dames a work, Marmalad and preserved Damsons are to be met with in every house. It was not long before I left the Countrey that I made Cherry wine, and so may others, for there are good store of them both red and black. Their fruit trees are subject to two diseases, the Meazels, which is when they are burned and scorched with the Sun, and lowsiness, when the woodpeckers jab holes in their bark: the way to cure them when they are lowsie is to bore a hole in the main root with an Augiir, and pour in a quantity of Brandie or Rhum, and then stop it up with a pin made of the same Tree."
' Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections ist Ser. I:ii8.
'^ Mass. Records 1:24.
' Mass. Hist. Collections 3d Ser. 23:337.
58 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
As early as 1641, a nursery had been started in Massachusetts and was selUng among other trees those of the cherry. Troublesome pests had made their appearance, too, as may be seen from the following letter, probably from the first American nurseryman. The letter is written by George Fenwith of Saybrook, Connecticut, under date of May 6, 1641,^ to Governor John Winthrop, Jr.
" I haue receaued the trees yow sent me, for which I hartily thanke yow. If I had any thing heare that could pleasure yow, yow should frely command it. I am prettie well storred with chirrie & peach trees, & did hope I had had a good nurserie of aples, of the aples yow sent me last yeare, but the wormes have in a manner distroyed them all as they came vp. I pray informe me if yow know any way to preuent the like mis- chief e for the futtire."
These early plantations of cherries in New England were undoubtedly grown from seed; for buds, cions and trees could not have been imported unless the latter were brought over potted out as was not commonly done until a century and a half later — • at least, the records make mention of seeds and not of trees as was the case just before and after the Revolutionary War. A statement left by one of the Chief Justices of Massachusetts, Paul Dudley, living at Roxbiiry, at as late a date as 1726, indicates that varieties were few. In a paper in the Philosophical Trans- actions^ on agriciiltural conditions in Massachusetts, among many other interesting things. Justice Dudley says:
" Our apples are without doubt as good as those of England, and much fairer to look to, and so are the pears, but we have not got all the sorts. Our peaches do rather excel those of England, and then we have not the trouble or expence of walls for them; for our peach trees are all standards, and I have had in my own garden seven or eight hundred fine peaches of the Rare-ripes, growing at a time on one tree. Our people, of late years, have run so much upon orchards, that in a village near Boston, consisting of about forty families, they made near three thousand barrels of cyder. This was in the year 1721 . And in another town of two hundred families, in the same year I am credibly informed they made near ten thousand barrels. Our peach trees are large and fruitful, and bear com- monly in three years from the stone. Our common cherries are not so good as the Kentish cherries of England, and we have no Dukes or Heart cherries, unless in two or three gardens."
^ Mass. Hist. Collections 4th Ser. VI:499.
^Abridgment 6:pt. 11:341, in Hist. Mass. Hart. Soc. 14-15. 1829-1878.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 59
CHERRIES IN NEW YORK
Though settled at about the same time and having a more congenial climate, New York made progress in fruit-growing more slowly than Massachusetts. The early Dutch settlers in New York were transient traders and not home makers. Actual settlement with homes in view did not begin until after the historical bargain in which thrifty Peter Minuit had acquired Manhattan Island for $24.00 and the country became New Amsterdam. But troublesome times followed under the rule of Minuit, Wouter Van Twiller and Kieft, quarrels and actual war, or the fear of it, with colonists to the north and south as well as with the savages, preventing the planting of orchards and farms until in 1647 when the reins of government were taken in hand by Peter Stuyvesant.
Governor Stuyvesant was a farmer as well as a soldier and there is something in history and much in tradition of the Bowery Farm, which flourished on the site of the present Bowery in New York. This farm was planted and tended by " Peter, the Headstrong " when he was not dis- puting with his burgomasters, watching the Yankees and fighting Swedes and Indians. The orchards and gardens, according to all accounts, were remarkably fine and were kept in a high state of cultivation. Stuyvesant founded the farm during the stormy times of his governorship but did not live on it until the English took possession of New Amsterdam in 1 664 when he retired to the land and devoted the eighteen remaining years of his life to agriculture. From the neighboring colonies and from abroad he brought many fruits, flowers, farm and truck crops. Fruits came to him also from Holland and were disseminated from his orchard up the Hudson.
The cherry was one of the fruits much grown by the Dutch. It would be wearisome and would serve little purpose even to attempt a cursory review of the literature of colonial days in New York showing the spread and the extent of fruit culture by the Dutch. Travel up the Hudson and its branches was easy and within a century after the settlement of New York by the Dutch, cherries were not only cultivated by the whites, according to the records of travelers, naturalists and missionaries, but were rudely tilled by the Indians.
For a long time after its introduction in New York, the cherry, in common with other fruits, was grown as a species — varieties and budded or grafted trees were probably not known. Fruit-growing as an industry began in New York and in America, with the establishment of a nursery
6o THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
at Flushing, Long Island, in 1730, by Robert Prince, founder of the nursery which afterwards became the famous Linnaean Botanic Garden. At what date this nursery began to offer named cherries for sale cannot be said but advertisements appearing in 1767, 1774 and 1794 show that budded or grafted named cherries were being offered for sale by the Princes. In 1804, William Prince, third proprietor of the famous Flushing nursery, prepared a list of the named cherries then under cultivation in America for Willich's Domestic Encyclopaedia, an English work which was being edited and made " applicable to the present situation of the United States " by Dr. James Mease. The following is Prince's list:^
"May Diike, ripe in May and June: long stem, round and red, an excellent cherry, and bears well.
"Black Heart, ripe in June: a fine cherry.
"White Heart (or Sugar Cherry) ripe in June: white and red.
" Bleeding Heart, ripe in June; a very large cherry of a long form and dark colour; it has a pleasant taste.
"Ox Heart, ripe in June: a large, firm, fine cherry.
" Spanish Heart, ripe in June.
" Carnation, ripe in July, it takes its name from its coloiu:, being red and white, a large round cherry, but not very sweet.
"Amber, ripe in July.
" Red Heart, do.
" Late Duke, do.
"Cluster, planted more for ornament, or curiosity than any other purpose.
" Double Blossoms, ripe in July.
"Honey Cherry, do. small sweet cherry.
"Kentish cherry, ripe in July.
" Mazarine, do.
"Morello, do. and August; a red, acid cherry, the best for preserving, and for making cherry-brandy.
"Early Richmond Cherry. This fruit originated near Richmond in Virginia, and is the earliest cherry in America, and valuable on that account; it is the size of a May Duke, and resembles it in form.
"Red Bigereau, a very fine cherry, ripe in July, of a heart shape.
"White Bigereau, ripe in July and August: remarkably firm, heart shaped.
"Large Double Flowering Cherry. This tree produces no fruit but makes a handsome appearance in the spring, when it is covered with clusters of double flowers as large as the cinnamon rose; it differs from
' Willich Domestic Encyclopaedia 105. 1804.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 6l
the common double flowering cherry which never forms a large tree, and has small pointed leaves.
"The three last were imported from Bordeaux in 1798.
"Small Morello Cherry, called also Salem Cherry, because it came originally from Salem County, N. J., is cultivated by Mr. Cooper of that state, who values it highly. The fruit has a lively acid taste. The tree produces abundantly, and is the least subject to worms of any cherry trees.
"Mr. C. says that the Bleeding Heart suits a sandy soil, but that the May-duke will not flourish in it."
CHERRIES IN THE SOUTH
It wovild be interesting but hardly of sufficient profit to trace further the history of cultivated cherries in the states of the Atlantic seaboard. References to the cherry abound in the colonial records of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware but they bring out no facts differing materially from those abstracted from the records of the northern colonies. The Quakers and the Swedes in the states watered by the Delaware and the English in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, all early grew cherries as one of the easiest fruits to propagate and cultivate.
Space can be spared for but two brief quotations to show the con- dition of cherry culture in the South in Colonial days. The first is from Bruce's Economic History of Virginia.'
" In the closing years of the seventeenth century, there were few plantations in Virginia which did not possess orchards of apple and peach trees, pear, plum, apricot and quince.^ The number of trees was often very large. The orchard of Robert Hide of York'' contained three hundred peach and three hundred apple trees. There were twenty-five hundred apple trees in the orchard of Colonel Fitzhugh.^ Each species of fruit was represented by many varieties; thus, of the apple, there were mains, pippins, russentens, costards, marigolds, kings, magitens and bachelors; of the pear, bergamy and warden. The quince was greater in size, but less acidulated than the English quince; on the other hand, the apricot and plum were inferior in quality to the English, not ripening in the same perfection.^ Cherries grew in notable abundance. So great was the productive capacity of the peach that some of the landowners planted
' Bruce Economic History of Virginia 1:468. 1895.
* Glover Philo. Trans. Royal Soc. 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628.
* Records of York County vol. 1694-1697, p. 71, Va. State Library.
* Letters of William Fitzkugh April 22, 1686.
5 Glover Philo. Trans. Royal Soc. 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628.
62 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
orchards of the tree for the mere purpose of using the fruit to fatten their hogs-/ on some plantations, as many as forty bushels are said to have been knocked down to the swine in the cotirse of a single season."^ The second quotation is from Lawson's History of Carolina.^ " We have the common, red and black cherry, which bear well. I never saw any grafted in this country, the common excepted, which was grafted on an Indian plum stock, and bore well. This is a good way, because our common cherry trees are very apt to put scions all around the tree for a great distance, which must needs be prejudicial to the tree and fruit. Not only our cherries are apt to do so, but our apples and most other fruit trees, which may chiefly be imputed to the negligence and unskillfulness of the gardner. Our cherries are ripe a month sooner than in Virginia."
CHERRIES IN THE MIDDLE WEST
At a surprisingly early date the cherry, with the apple, peach, pear and plum, was being grown far inland in the New World. Southeastern Michigan was settled in 1701 at Detroit and within a half-century settle- ments had been made at Vincennes, Indiana; Kaskaskia and Cahokia, Illinois; and at Saint Louis and several other points in Missouri. The orchards and gardens of the early French settlers in these states live in the traditions of all the settlements; but much more substantial evidence was to be found a century ago, and in the case of the apple and pear may still be found, in the venerable trees of all the tree-fruit in and about these old French posts. " The homes of these pioneers," so good an authority as Parkman tells us, " were generally placed in gardens sur- rounded by fruit trees of apples, pears, cherries and peaches." Were proof lacking of these early plantations, it might be assumed that people so fond of horticulture as the French would not long be unmindful of the value to themselves and their posterity of plantations of fruit trees.
CHERRIES ON THE PACIFIC COAST
The history of the cherry in America is not complete without some mention of its introduction, culture and the development of new varieties on the Pacific coast. Indeed, it is not too much to say that at no time nor at any place in its whole history has the cherry made greater advance- ment than during the last half-century in Oregon, California and Wash- ington — naming the states in order of their contribution to cherry culture.
' Beverley History of Virginia p. 260.
' Glover Philo. Trans. Royal Sac. 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628.
' Lawson History of Carolina 183. 1714. (Reprint of i860.)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 63
At about the time the colonies were beginning their struggle with the mother country for independence, Franciscan monks were establishing missions in California. To these they brought seeds of fruits, grains, flowers and vegetables, as several historians of the missions tell us, and as the trees found by Americans a few decades later make certain as regards fruits. It is probable that by the close of the Revolutionary war all sub- tropical and temperate fruits of Europe were to be found cultivated in the missions of California. Among these, in an enumeration of the products of the missions, the cherry is listed by E. S. Capson.' From its introduc- tion at approximately the close of the Eighteenth Centiuy, the cherry con- tinued to be cultivated, at times more or less sparsely to be sure, until, by conquest in the war with Mexico, California passed into the possession of the United States. A new era in horticulture began in California soon after the influx of gold-seekers in 1849, some of whom, noting the oppor- tunities of fruit-growing, at once began the importation of seeds and plants.
Modem fruit-growing on the Pacific Coast, however, began in Oregon. The California Argonauts of '49 were much too busily engaged in digging gold to think of getting it indirectly by tilling the soil, whereas the men who were then crossing the plains from Missouri or sailing around the Horn from New England to Oregon were home-makers and true tillers of the soil. These early Oregonians were the forerunners in the zeal and enterprise which have made horticulture on this coast the marvel of modern agricvdture. But one of the several early horticulturists of Oregon can be mentioned here, he deserving special mention by virtue of his work with cherries.
Until 1847 the few cultivated fruits to be found in Oregon were seed- lings mostly grown by employees of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. In that year there was a notable importation of cultivated fruits across the plains — a venture which qmckly proved pregnant with results in fruit harvests which have not ceased and give promise long to continue. Henderson Lewelling crossed the plains from Henry County, Iowa, and brought with him a choice selection of grafted fruits. These he transported in boxes of soil which he hauled in a wagon drawn by oxen. Arriving in Oregon late in the fall of 1847 he found that he had 300 trees alive which he planted at what is now Milwaukee, a few miles south of Portland on the east side of the Willamette River. Later, seeds were brought for
• History of California ill. 1854,
64 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
Stocks, though for the cherry the wild species, Primus emarginata and Pninus virginiana, were used and very successftilly, until Mazzard and Mahaleb seeds could be obtained. In this travelling nursery, Lewelling brought to Oregon cherries of the Bigarreau, the English Morello and probably of several other types. The label of one of the cherries was lost and this unknown was renamed Royal Ann. Unfortiinately, it was one of the best known of all cherries that for the time being lost its identity — the Napoleon, which probably has been cultivated for three centuries and since 1820 has borne the name of the great General. With dogged perseverance the West Coast fniit-growers continue the name " Royal Ann " to the great confusion of systematic pomology.
But of chief import to cherry culture were the subsequent operations in the Lewelling nursery at Milwavikee. Lacking proper stocks, Seth Lewell- ing, who had succeeded Henderson in the nursery business, grew a great many cherries from seeds. From these he afterward selected and dis- seminated varieties that have made Oregon famous not only for what are probably the finest sweet cherries in the world but for a long list of new and desirable varieties — as Republican, Lincoln, Willamette Seedling and Bing. We call to mind no greater success in bringing into being new fruits from a few lots of seedlings than in the case of Lewelling and his cherries. Lewelling' s work stimulated others to breed cherries and among many seedlings that have since been named in the Northwest the Lambert and Oregon are well worthy of mention.
The facts of time and place in the beginning of cherry culture which we have tried to set forth in this chapter have, we think, some historical and narrative interest. Yet, the main value of the facts are not in history and story. Rather, at least so we hope they will be interpreted, these brief records show what the crude material was out of which our present cultivated cherry flora has been developed; what the steps were in the domestication and development of the cherry; what economic purposes they have served; and who the peoples are and what the methods were in bringing the cherry to its present state of development. In a word, I the chapter will not have served the purpose for which it is mainly intended if it does not fvunish facts and inspirations toward the further evolution of the cherry.
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 65
CHAPTER m CHERRY CULTURE
The magnitude of the cherry industry in the United States is not generally appreciated. This is because cherries are very largely grown in small home plantations and the product is either consumed at home and in local markets, or is sent to canning factories and is therefore disposed of without the display attending the production and marketing of fruits sold in the general market. The following figures from the last census show the importance of the industry. There were in 1909, according to the census taken in 1910, 11,822,044 bearing cherry trees in the United States and 5,621,660 trees not of bearing age. The bearing trees bore 4,126,099 bushels of fruit valued at $7,231,160. When this, the thirteenth census, was taken the cherry ranked fifth in commercial value among orchard fruits, being surpassed in the order named by the apple, peach, pliim and pear.
The yield of fruit was 43.6 per centum greater in 1909 than in 1899. This high percentage of increase has been brought about in several ways. The recent development of rapid transportation, refrigerator service and of marketing facilities has greatly stimulated the culture of this as of all other fruits in the United States. An increased demand for canned and preserved cherries has sprung up so that cherries are much more used now than formerly, the trade in preserved cherries for confections and various drinks in particular having greatly increased. Lastly, better care of orchards and better means of combating insects and fungi have increased the yields during the last decade.
Cherries are grown in greater or less quantities in every state in the L^nion but commercially the industry is confined to a few states having especial advantages in climate, soil and markets. In but six states, accord- ing to the last census, was the value of the cherry crop more than a half- million dollars, the states being: California $951,654, Pennsylvania $909,975, Ohio $657,406, Michigan $590,829, New York $544,508, Indiana $508,516. In New York in particiilar, recent plantings of this fruit have been so great that at this writing, July, 19 14, the figures given for this State could be increased by a quarter at the very least, and no doubt they could be largely increased also for California and Michigan. The great growth of the canning industry is most largely responsible for the' large plantings of cherries in recent years in regions especially suited to this fruit. 5
66 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
In the several states named, the cherry industry is further localized. Thus, in the 6i counties in New York, the cherry is grown largely in but 12, the number of trees in each of these being: Columbia 78,526, Niagara 61,786, Monroe 49,831, Ontario 36,394- Wayne 35.385- Erie 29,483, Onon- daga 25,932, Seneca 27,063, Chautauqua 24,483, Steuben 15,412, Orleans 14,682 and Cayuga 14,319. If the figures just given, the total number being 413,296, are compared with the number of trees in the State, 674,000, it will be seen that the industry is quite localized, two-thirds of the cherries being grown in 12 of the 61 counties, though the fact is brought out in the census that cherries are grown on 59,408 farms in New York, showing that this fruit is much grown for home use. Further figures of interest as regards New York are that the cherry crop in 1909 amounted to 271,597 bushels which sold for $544,508. The plantings in the State cover in the neighborhood of 9,500 acres.
A canvass of the leading cherry -growers and nurserymen in the United States shows that, in all parts of the country excepting California, Oregon and Washington, Sour Cherries are much more commonly grown than Sweet Cherries. In New York at least 90 per cent of the cherry trees are of sour varieties and this proportion will hold for the region east of the Rockies. The leading commercial varieties of Sour Cherries, in order named, are Montmorency, Early Richmond and English Morello. No other variety is nearly as commonly grown as is even the least well known of these three. No one of the Diike cherries is mentioned as of commercial importance, but May Duke, Late Duke and Reine Hortense are frequently grown in home plantations.
Growers of Sweet Cherries are not nearly as closely in accord as to the best varieties as are those who grow sour sorts. The most popular Sweet Cherries in the East seem to be Windsor, Black Tartarian, Napoleon and Wood with a very insistent statement of the few who have tried it that Schmidt is better than any of these for the market. On the Pacific Coast honors go to Napoleon, which the Westerners continue to call Royal Ann despite the fact that it has been cultivated for three centuries and had been called Napoleon for nearly a half-centiu^y before Lewelling took it to Oregon in 1847. Other popular sorts on the Pacific seaboard are Bing, Lambert and Republican — all western productions.
Rather more important than the information obtained from growers of cherry trees as to varieties was that as to the stocks on which cherries
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 67
are grown in America. This brings us to a discussion of the whole subject of stocks for cherries.
STOCKS FOR CHERRIES
Cherries have been grown in America for over 200 years and for 50 years the crop has been important commercially. Yet despite the extent and the importance of the industry and the years it has been in existence, curiously enough so fundamental a question as the best stock upon which to grow cherries has not yet been settled; indeed, though cherries behave markedly different on the several stocks, interest as to which is the best seems but recently to have been aroused. Now there is a rather warm controversy as to which is the better of the two leading stocks, the Maz- zard or the Mahaleb.
Fruit-growers on one side hold that the Mazzard is the best stock for all orchard varieties of this fruit while niirserymen controvert this view and say that the Mahaleb is at least a fit stock for sweet sorts and is the best one for Sour Cherries, and, moreover, that it is now impossible to grow cherries on Mazzard roots at prices that fruit-growers are willing to pay. Since no systematic attempts seem to have been made to deter- mine the peculiarities and values of these two and other cherry stocks both sides dispute without many facts. Meanwhile, a fine crop of mis- understandings has grown up about the whole matter of cherry stocks. It is worth while to attempt to clear up some of the misunderstandings. The first step toward this end is to describe and give the botanical and horticultural relationships of the Mazzard and Mahaleb cherries to orchard cherries.
The Mazzard, as we have seen, is a common name, of uncertain origin, of the wild Sweet Cherry, Pniniis avium, from which has come all culti- vated Sweet Cherries. It is important to recall that the trees of the Mazzard reach a height of thirty or forty feet and the trunk often attains a diameter of eighteen or twenty inches. Other characters to be kept in mind are that the Mazzard lacks hardiness to cold but grows vigorously and is usually healthy, though susceptible to several fungi, one of which, the shot-hole fungus, Cylindrosporiiim padi, makes it a most difficult plant to grow in the nursery. Trees and fruit coming from the Mazzard used as a stock are very uniform, a fact easy to ascertain in New York where this stock has been largely used for nearly a century. The Mazzard is almost always grown from seed for stocks though suckers are occasionally used — a poor practice.
68 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK
The Mazzard, or at least the Sweet Cherry, has probably been more or less used as a stock since the earliest cultivation of this fruit. The Greeks and Romans practiced budding and grafting centuries before Christ's time and when the cherry came to them as a domesticated fruit, at least three or four centuries before Christ, they undoubtedly made use of bud- ding and grafting' to maintain varieties and in the case of the Sour Cherry, if they had it, and they probably did, to avoid the suckers that spring from the roots of the trees. The literatiu-e of fruit-growing is scant and fragmentary during the Middle Ages but beginning with the herbals in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries there are many treatises on fruits and botany and in several of these the use of the wild Sweet Cherry, the Mazzard, is mentioned.-
In America the Mazzard as a stock probably came into use soon after the establishment of Prince's nvirsery at Flushing, Long Island, about 1 730, budding and grafting seeming to have been little practiced in the New World before the founding of this nursery.' The use of the Mazzard as a stock is mentioned probably for the first in Coxe's Fniit Trees^ the
' Varro (B. C. 117-27), as we have seen on page 47, tells when to graft cherries and discusses the process as if grafting cherries were a common operation.
^ In The Country-Man' s New Art of Planting and Grafting, written by Leonard Mascall, 1652, the writer says, " Sower Cherries . . . will grow of stones, but better it shall be to take of the small Cions which do come from the roots; then plant them.
" Ye must have respect unto the Healme Cherry, [a sweet cherry of the time] which is graft on the wild Gomire [Mazzard] which is another kind of great Cherry, and whether you do prune them or not, it is not materiaU; for they dure a long time."
R. A. Austen, in his Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1653, writes, " Concerning Stocks fit for Cherry-trees, I account the black Cherry stock (Mazzard) the best to graft any kind of Cherry upon. Yet some say the red Cherry stock is best for May-Cherries. But the black Cherry stocks are goodly straight Plants full of sap and become greater trees than the red Cherry trees."
John Reid, The Scots Gard'ner, 1683, writes, " Dwarfe Cherries on the Morella, or on the common Red Cherrie. Or on that Red geen which is more Dwarffish than the black."
John Lawrence, The Clergyman's Recreation, 1714, declared that, " Black Cherries (Mazzard) are the only Stocks, whereon to raise all, the several sorts of Cherries."
' " The practice of grafting and inoculating in America is but of modern date. It was introduced by Mr. Prince, a native of New York, who erected a Nursery in its neighborhood about forty years ago. But since the late American revolution, others have been instituted in this and some other parts of the United States. Mr. Livingston has lately established one, not far from the city of New York, which can vie with some of the most celebrated ones in Europe. May he, and others, who have undertaken in that useful branch of business, meet with encouragement and success. Nothing in the extensive field of Horti- culture can afford more agreeable amusement or yield more solid satisfaction and advantage." Forsyth on Fruit Trees, Albany, N. Y., 1803:278.
* " The cherry is propagated by budding and ingrafting — from its disposition to throw out gum from wounds in the vessels of the bark, the former mode is most generally adopted. The heart cherries do not succeed well on any but the black Mazard stocks, but round or duke cherries do as well on Morello
i4'f^'^
PRIXVS AVIUM (MAZZARD)
THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 69
second American treatise on fruits, published in 1817, and again in Thacher's American Orchardist, published in 1822.' Both authors, as the footnotes show, speak of the use of this stock as if it were in common use in American nurseries. Neither mentions the Mahaleb.
The Mahaleb, Primus mahaleb, it will be remembered from the description previously given, is a bush or bush-like cherry, sometimes but not often attaining the height and port of a tree. The top is thick, with rather slender ramifying branches bearing small, green, smooth, glossy leaves, which resemble those of the apricot more than they do the leaves of either species of orchard cherries. The fruits are at first green, then yellowish, turning to red and at full maturity are shining, black and so hard, bitter and astringent as to be scarcely edible. This brief description of Primus mahaleb shows that it is quite distinct from either our commonly cultivated Sweet Cherry, Primus avium, or the Sour Cherry, Prunus cerasus, differing from either much more than the two edible species differ from each other. It is quite as far removed from the Sweet or the Sour Cherry botanically as the apple is from the pear, the quince, or the thorn and if anything more distantly related than orchard cherries are to plums. One wovdd expect the wood structure of the Mahaleb to differ from that of Sweet or Sour Cherries very materially and that even if the union proved in budding or grafting wholly normal that there would be some difficulty in the proper passage of nutritive solutions between stock and cion. This cherry, as we have seen, is propagated almost entirely from seed though it may easily be grown from layers, cuttings and suckers. The American supply of Mahaleb stock comes from France.
The Mahaleb seems to have come into use as a stock for other cherries
stocks, which are often preferred from their being less liable to the cracks in the bark, from frost and sun on the south-west side; this injurj' may be almost effectually prevented by planting on the east side of board fences or buildings, or by fixing an upright board on the south-west side of each tree in open situations.
" The best stocks are raised from stones planted in the nursery. Stocks raised from suckers of old trees, will always generate suckers, which are injurious and very troublesome in gardens: diseases of old or worn out varieties, are likewise perpetuated by the use of suckers for stocks." Coxe Fruit Trees 1817:253.
' " The cultivated cherry, when reared from the seed, is much disposed to deviate from the variety of the original fruit, and, of course, they are propagated by budding or grafting on cherry stocks: budding is most generally preferred, as the tree is less apt to suffer from oozing of the gum than when grafted. The stocks are obtained by planting the seeds in a nursery, and the seedlings are afterwards transplanted. Those kinds which are called heart cherries are said to succeed best on the black r^azard stock; but for the round kind, the Morello stocks are preferred, on account of their being the least subject to worms, or to cracks in the bark, from frost and heat of the sun." Thacher American Orchardist 1822:212.
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in France having been first mentioned for this purpose by Diihamel du Monceau in his Traite des Arbres Fruitiers in 1768.^
Miller in his Gardener's Dictionary, 1 754, describes the Mahaleb cherry and says it was " Cultivated in 17 14 by the Duchess of Beaufort." This seems to be the first mention of its culture in England though Gerarde in The Herball or Generall Historic of Plantes describes it. Neither mentions its use as a stock. In fact, it seems not to have been mentioned as a stock in England until 1824 when Loudon in the Encyclopedia of Gardening speaks of it as " the most effectual dwarfing stock." ^
It was not until after the middle of the Nineteenth Century that the Mahaleb came into use in America, none of the horticultioral writers in the first half of the last century, as Cobbett, 1803; McMahon, 1806; Coxe, 181 7; Thacher, 1822; Prince, 1828; Kenrick, 1833; Manning, 1838; Thomas, 1846; Floy, 1846, nor Cole, 1849, having mentioned the Mahaleb though nearly all speak of the Mazzard as the stock upon which cherries are budded. Downing, in 1845, makes first mention of the Mahaleb as a stock in the New World;' Thomas in his second edition, 1851, recom- mends it as a stock to dwarf cherries;* Barry, 1852, says that Mahaleb stock is imported from Europe;' while Elliott, in 1854, also speaks of it as
' " So the good species and their varieties are perpetuated and multiplied by grafting upon the Merisier, upon the Cerisier with round fruit, and upon the Cerisier de Sainte-Lucie [Mahaleb]. All the Cerisiers succeed well upon the Merisier and it is the only subject which is suited to the high-headed trees. It has the advantage of not sending forth any or very few suckers. The Cerisier de Sainte-Lucie has the same advantage. It receives very well the graft of all species of cherries and adapts itself to the worst soils." Duhamel Traite des Arbres Fruitiers 1:197. 1768.
^ " Varieties of the cherrj' are continued by grafting or budding on stocks of the black or wild red cherries, which are strong shooters, and of a longer duration than any of the garden kinds. Some graft on the Morello for the purpose of dwarfing the tree, and rendering it more prolific; but the most effectual dwarfing stock is the mahaleb, which, however, will not succeed in the generality of soils in Britain. Dubreuil of Rouen recommends the wild cherry for clayey and light soils, and the mahaleb for soils of a light, sandy or chalky nature. The stones of the cultivated cherry are commonly, but improperly, substituted for those of the wild sort, as being more easily procured." Loudon Enc. of Card. 1824:924.
' " When dwarf trees are required, the Morello seedlings are used as stocks; or when very dwarf trees are wished the Perfumed Cherry, (Cerasus Mahaleb) is employed; but as standards are almost universally preferred, these are seldom seen here. Dwarfs in the nursery must be headed back the second year, in order to form lateral shoots near the ground." Downing Fruit Trees of America 1845: 164.
* " The stocks used for this purpose (to dwarf cherries) are the " Perfumed Cherry " or Primus Mahaleb, which also possesses the advantage of flourishing on heavy clay ground. The grafts will usually grow quite vigorously for two or three seasons, but they soon form dwarf, prolific bushes." Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 1849:351.
" The principal stocks used for the cherry are the mazzard for standard orchard trees, and the mahaleb for garden pyramids and dwarfs.
" The Mahaleb (Cerasus mahaleb) is a small