130 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, very productive; trunk rather 

 thick, shaggy; branches with numerous large lenticels; branchlets slender, short; leaves 

 two and three-fourths inches long, one and one-half inches wide, thick, stiff, dark green, 

 rather glossy, smooth; margin finely and doubly serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole 

 glandless or with from one to three small, globose, brown or yellowish glands variable 

 in position; buds small, short, obtuse, in small clusters at the ends of slender, branch- 

 like spurs; leaf -scars prominent; season of bloom late; flowers one inch across; pistil equal 

 to or slightly longer than the stamens, sometimes defective. 



Fruit matures in mid-season; about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, oblate, 

 compressed; color attractive dark red; stem one inch long, adhering to the fruit; skin 

 thin, tender, separating from the pulp; flesh light yellow, with pinkish juice, tender and 

 melting, sprightly, tart; of very good quality; stone free, ovate, flattened, slightly pointed, 

 with smooth surfaces, somewhat tinged with red. 



EARLY PURPLE 



Primus avium 



I. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 26. 1909. 



Purple Cherry. 2. Ray Hist. Plant. 1540. 1688. 



Early Purple Guigne. 3. Cu/Zizjotor N. S. 4:280 fig. 2. 1847. 4. Hovey Fr. /Im. 1:93, 94, PI. 1851. 



5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 55. 1852. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 211. 1856. 7. Mas Le Verger 8:129, I30> 

 fig. 63. 1866-73. 8. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:57 fig. 3, 58, 59. 1866. 9. Horticulturist 25:71 fig. 1870. 

 10. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:334, 335 fig., 336. 1877. 11. Hogg Fruit Man. 295. 1884. 12. Guide Prat. 



6, 193. 1895. 



Purple Guigne. 13. Elliott Fr. Book 195 fig. 1854. 



Early Purple is a valuable cherry on account of its earliness, its attrac- 

 tive color and high quality. The trees bear well and regularly after having 

 become established in the orchard. The variety has the reputation of 

 being a poor grower in the nursery and as a young tree in the orchard but 

 with age it takes on vigor and at all times is as healthy as those of any 

 Sweet Cherry. More than most cherries, this variety responds to good 

 care and a choice cherry soil — a warm, free- working loam being best. A 

 rather unusual and serious defect of this variety is that the fruit-spurs 

 are easily broken during picking and the crop of the next season thereby 

 cut short. Another fault is that it is the favorite food of the robin where 

 this, the worst of all cherry pests, abounds. The cherries of this variety 

 do not attain their rich purple color until full maturity is reached. Hogg, 

 the English pomologist, maintains that Early Purple does better on the 

 Mahaleb than on the Mazzard stock. No home collection should be 

 without this variety and it can often be profitably grown as an early cherry 

 for the local market. 



Early Purple is the Early Purple Guigne of most fruit-books, the 



