150 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



This old English variety has long been popular in America, where it 

 is generally known as Knight's Early Black, this name having been short- 

 ened by the American Pomological Society to Knight. Possibly Knight is 

 to be found in dooryards and home gardens in Eastern United States as 

 often as any other Sweet Cherry with the exception of Black Tartarian. 

 The characters which give it popularity are excellent quality, handsome 

 appearance because of its glossy, dark purple color and uniformity in color, 

 shape and size, and its earliness, it being the earliest good Sweet Cherry. 

 Unfortunately, even in the best soil and under the most painstaking treat- 

 ment, the cherries nin small, a defect for American markets. The small 

 size also leads to comparatively low yields even though the fruits are often 

 borne in prodigious numbers. Knight, in size, color and flavor, is much 

 like Black Tartarian but the cherries are smaller and ripen earlier. As 

 the trees grow on the grounds of this Station they are about all that covild 

 be desired in a Sweet Cherry. The trees are characteristically marked by 

 smooth bark which is dotted with large lenticels. There are now 

 better sweet varieties than Knight for most purposes but still this old 

 variety has too many merits, especially for home grounds, to be wholly 

 forgotten. 



Knight comes from a seed of May Dtike crossed with Yellow Spanish 

 by T. A. Knight, Downton Castle, Wiltshire, England, about 1810. The 

 new variety sprang into prominence almost immediately, being mentioned 

 by French, German and English writers. Knight is still one of the well- 

 recognized sorts in Europe and America and has appeared continuously 

 on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society since 1848. Mathieu 

 has included several synonyms under this head which we question as we 

 believe they belong to the Guigne Noir Hative, a distinct variety though 

 very similar. 



Tree of meditim size, upright-spreading, open-topped, very productive; trunk stocky, 

 variable in smoothness; branches smooth, light reddish-brown nearly overspread with 

 ash-gray, with small lenticels; branchlets thick, brown lightly covered with ash-gray, 

 variable in smoothness, with small, raised, inconspicuous lenticels. 



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

 upward, obovate to long-oval, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light 

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

 small, dark glands; petiole two inches long, slender, tinged with red, with a shallow groove 

 and with few hairs, with two or three large, reniform, reddish glands, usually on the 

 stalk. 



Buds long, conical or pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and in 



