THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 127 



Card. 102. 1846. 8. Mag. Hort. 14:386, 387 fig. 37. 1848. 9. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Cr. 52. 1848. 

 10. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:85, PI. 1851. 11. Horticulturist N. S. 4:287. 1854. 12. Am. Pom. Sac. Rpt. 

 108, 186. 1856. 13. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:77-79, %• 12. 1866. 14. Mas Pom. Cen. 11:83, 84, fig. 

 42. 1882. 15. Hogg Fruit Man. 285, 286. 1884. 16. Cornell Sta. But. 98:491 fig. 86. 1895. 



We hesitatingly follow the American Pomological Society in calling 

 this variety Eagle when it has so long been known as Black Eagle, the 

 name given it by the great pomologist, Knight. Were this choicely good 

 cherry larger in size, it would still be a prime favorite with growers for in 

 many respects it is one of the best varieties of its species. Its flavor is 

 excellent; the trees are usually fruitful; it ripens at a good time in the 

 cherry season, just after Black Tartarian; the cherries are less liable to 

 crack than many of its rivals; and the trees are as hardy, healthy and 

 vigorous as those of any Sweet Cherry. Some complain that the trees do 

 not bear well at first but are productive only with age. But, after all, it 

 is its high quality that gives Eagle so much merit that it ought not to be 

 forgotten — makes it worth a place in every home orchard and commends 

 it highly to commercial growers of cherries who want a finely finished 

 product for either local or general market. The fruit-stems of this variety 

 are characteristically long. 



Eagle was grown about 1806 by Sir Thomas Andrew Knight at Down- 

 ton Castle, Wiltshire, England, by fertilizing the Bigarreau of the old 

 writers, oiu- Yellow Spanish, with pollen of the May Duke. The correct- 

 ness of the parentage as given has been questioned because of its inherited 

 characteristics. But if the May Duke is a hybrid between a Sweet and a 

 Sour, a pvu-e Sweet offspring is not an impossibility. In 1823, Honorable 

 John Lowell of Massachusetts received Eagle from Knight. Prince men- 

 tioned this cherry in his Treatise of Horticulture, 1828, but the exact date 

 of its introduction into New York is unknown. In 1848 it was placed on 

 the list of fruits adopted by the National Convention of Fruit Growers 

 and since then it has been retained on the fruit list of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense, unproductive at first but improv- 

 ing with age; trunk and branches thick, smooth; branches reddish-brown partlj' covered 

 with ash-gray, with mamerous small lenticels; branchlets thick, brownish partly covered 

 with Ught ash-gray, the surface slightly ribbed and with small, raised, inconspicuous 

 lenticels. 



Leaves ntunerous, five inches long, two and one-half inches wide, folded upward, 

 long, obovate to elliptical, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light 

 green, thinly pubescent; apex variable in shape; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, with 



