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 



