THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK I77 



Ostheim is a native of Spain and not of Germany as many have 

 supposed. The trees were found in the region of the Sierra Morena Moun- 

 tains, Spain, and were taken to Germany by a Dr. KUnghammer after the 

 Wars of the Succession, 1701-1713. The cherry took the name Ostheim from 

 the German town of that name where it was widely grown. The variety, 

 being easily propagated, spread throughout Germany and soon became 

 one of the best-known cherries. Later, the name seems to have come to 

 be a class term for all cherries similar to the original Ostheim. The names 

 Ostheim, Ostheimer, Griotte Ostheim and Ostheimer Weichsel are used 

 interchangeably by foreign writers for this variety. American writers, 

 however, have given these names to two very similar but distinct varieties. 

 Ostheim was brought to the United States by William Robert Prince of 

 the Linnean Botanical Gardens early in the Nineteenth Century. It 

 has proved very satisfactory in some sections of the West and Canada, 

 while in the East it is but a mediocre variety at best. At different times 

 either buds or trees of so-called Ostheims have been imported to this 

 country which have turned out not to be the true variety. What these 

 sorts really are will remain uncertain until the several forms can be brought 

 together and compared. Professor Budd imported a variety in 1883, 

 which since has become known as Ostheim, carrying Griotte d'Ostheim 

 as a synonym. Whether or not this is the old variety or a distinct strain 

 of the Ostheim class we are unable to say. The Cerise d'Ostheim received 

 by this Station has proved identical with this variety. Ostheim was first 

 listed by the American Pomological Society in 1899. A cherry known 

 as Minnesota Ostheim, introduced into Minnesota from Germany, is now 

 recognized as a distinct sort. The variety as it is known in Kansas 

 and Missouri is often called the German Ostheimer though some believe 

 this to be different from the true sort. 



Tree below medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, with drooping branchlets, 

 dense, very productive; trunk smooth; branches rather slender, smooth, dark ash-gray 

 partly overspreading reddish-brown, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets slender, willowy, 

 long, brown partly overspread with ash-gray, smooth, glabrous, with small, inconspicuous 

 lenticels. 



Leaves very numerous, three and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches 

 wide, folded upward, obovate to oval; upper surface very dark green, smooth; lower sur- 

 face pale green, with a few scattering hairs; apex taper-pointed, base variable in shape; 

 margin finely serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole slender, one-half inch long, short, 

 tinged with dull red, grooved, with a few scattering hairs, with from one to three small, 

 globose, greenish-yellow glands at the base of the blade. 



