WILD CHERRY-TREE. 255 



winds." It is also said to thrive best when unmixed with other trees ; and suf- 

 fers the grass to grow beneath its shade. 



Propagation and Culture. The Cerasus sylvestris, whether grown for stocks 

 for grafting upon, or for planting out with a view to produce timber, is almost 

 always propagated from seeds ; but, as the roots throw up an abundance of 

 suckers, stools might be formed, and treated like those of the plum ; or, cuttings 

 of the roots might be employed for the same purpose. When plants are to be 

 raised from seeds, Mr. Loudon recommends that the cherries should be gathered 

 when ripe, and either be sown immediately, with the flesh on, incurring the risk 

 of their being eaten by birds or vermin, especially mice, during the autumn and 

 winter ; or, what is preferable, they may be mixed with four times their bulk of 

 sand, and kept in a shed or cellar, being turned over frequently, till the time 

 arrives for sowing. As soon as the ground is sufficiently open, in the winter or 

 spring, they may be sown in beds, and covered to the depth of one-half to three- 

 fourths of an inch, with light mould. Great care must be observed that the seeds 

 do not sprout while in the heap ; because, unlike the horse-chesnnt, the acorn, 

 and the seeds of some other fruits, the cherry expands its cotyledons at the same 

 time that it protrudes its radicle ; and when both are developed before sowing, 

 the probability is, that the germinated seeds will not live; for the coiyledons, in 

 sowing, are unavoidably covered with soil, whereas nature intended them to be 

 exposed to the light. The strongest plants, at the end of the first season, will be 

 eighteen inches or more in height, and may be drawn out from among the others, 

 and transplanted into nursery lines; and, after they have stood there a year, 

 they may be grafted or budded. =* 



The cherry-tree, whether in a young or old state, requires but a very little 

 pruning, and the knife should only be used for the removal of a secon(i leading 

 shoot, or an over-rampant branch. Whenever this becomes necessary, let it be 

 performed in the month of August or September, or at least, at a period when the 

 leaves are fully expanded, "a rule which holds good," says Mr. Selby, in his 

 treatise on 'British Forest Trees,' "and ought to be observed in regard to all 

 deciduous trees;" for, it has been found by experience that, when pruned in the 

 summer season, they are not liable to bleed or exude their gum, and as the sap 

 begins to elaborate, new wood is formed at the edges of the wounded parts, and 

 by the time of the fall of the leaf, the injuries will be so far recovered as to be 

 out of danger of decay, from the lodgment of wet, or the influences of the 

 weather. 



According to some experiments made by Mr. Selby, no tree bears transplanting 

 when of considerable size, better than the gean. He removed with success plants 

 from twenty to thirty feet in height, some of which had originated from suckers, 

 and others from seeds. As in the case of all trees that he had removed, of a large 

 size, they suflcred a check by the operation, but from this they generally recovered 

 in the course of two, or at most, three seasons. 



Accidents, Diseases, <^c. The foliage of the gean is seldom attacked by insects 

 or their larvae, though it is sometimes disfigured by the caterpillars of several spe- 

 cies of Geometridge ; and the extremities of the young shoots are often preyed 

 upon by a large, black louse (Aphis cerasi) ; but the fruit-bearing varieties of 

 the cherry, like most other cultivated trees, seem more subject to injury from 

 insects, than those in a wild state. 



Properties and Uses. The wood of the wild cherry-tree is of a reddish col- 

 our, of a firm, strong texture, and close-grain, yet sufficiently soft to be easily 

 worked, and is susceptible of a fine polish. When green, it is nearly of tlic same 

 specific gravity of water, and when dry, a cubic foot weighs about fifty-five 



* See Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum, ii., p. 700 



