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. 



